Screenwriter Anu Singh Choudhary speaks to Outlook’s Apeksha Priyadarshni where she talks about her latest project, the critically acclaimed film 'Mrs’.
The film, an adaptation of Malayalam movie 'The Great Indian Kitchen', has sparked mixed reactions, while some praised its powerful exploration of gender roles and societal expectations, others have taken offence, leading to a divided audience response.
Chaudhary shares the process of adapting the story across language and culture, turning it into something fresh and relevant for today’s audience.
In the interview, she also shares her experience as a woman in the industry, “I came with a lot of life experiences, and at a time when the industry needed women's stories”.
Watch the video to know more.
Reporter: Apeksha Priyadarshini
Editor: Ehraz Zaman
Follow us:
Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlookindia/
X: https://twitter.com/Outlookindia
Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaNrF3v0AgWLA6OnJH0R
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutlookMagazine
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/outlookindia
#OutlookTalks #AnuSinghChaudhary #MrsFilm #Screenwriter #FilmAdaptation #Storytelling #WomenInFilm #CreativeJourney #MrsMovie #IndianCinema #IndiaMovies #WomensDay #Feminism
The film, an adaptation of Malayalam movie 'The Great Indian Kitchen', has sparked mixed reactions, while some praised its powerful exploration of gender roles and societal expectations, others have taken offence, leading to a divided audience response.
Chaudhary shares the process of adapting the story across language and culture, turning it into something fresh and relevant for today’s audience.
In the interview, she also shares her experience as a woman in the industry, “I came with a lot of life experiences, and at a time when the industry needed women's stories”.
Watch the video to know more.
Reporter: Apeksha Priyadarshini
Editor: Ehraz Zaman
Follow us:
Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlookindia/
X: https://twitter.com/Outlookindia
Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaNrF3v0AgWLA6OnJH0R
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutlookMagazine
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/outlookindia
#OutlookTalks #AnuSinghChaudhary #MrsFilm #Screenwriter #FilmAdaptation #Storytelling #WomenInFilm #CreativeJourney #MrsMovie #IndianCinema #IndiaMovies #WomensDay #Feminism
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00You know, sometimes I've been called and told by the producers or people that,
00:03oh, we're bringing you in because we want that female gaze and the lens.
00:07The writer is the first technical person in that sense to be hired for the job.
00:12And she's or he's the one who's putting together the roadmap for you.
00:16And is the first person who's thrown out of the system as unceremoniously as one can imagine.
00:22We're still far from coming to a place where there are equal number of
00:27men as much as women and, you know, whoever identifies as men or women or other gender.
00:33So there is there's a long just in terms of inclusivity.
00:37We still have a long way to go.
00:45Hello and welcome to Outlook Talks.
00:47I'm Apeksha and today we are going to be talking to Anu Singh Chaudhary,
00:51who is one of the screenwriters in the Hindi film industry.
00:54Her latest film Misses is Out and has received a lot of critical appreciation.
01:00Anu has done many professional hats, including that of a journalist,
01:04a writer, a documentary filmmaker, and now a screenwriter.
01:08Welcome Anu to Outlook Talks.
01:10Thank you Apeksha, it's such a pleasure to be here.
01:12So Anu, can you tell us a little bit about your long and colourful journey from being
01:16a journalist to a writer to now a screenwriter as well?
01:20I call myself an opportunist.
01:22I have just gone ahead and grabbed every opportunity that came my way.
01:26Writing is the only thing that I have really enjoyed and have loved.
01:31I mean, creativity and putting something together.
01:33That's where my training has been.
01:36I have been trained.
01:37I was trained as a journalist.
01:38So that naturally led me to being a TV journalist, which was the year 2001, 2002,
01:43which is also the year when all these satellite channels were coming up.
01:46So there's so many opportunities which were available for the young lot like us.
01:50So I just went ahead and grabbed that opportunity and started working
01:53in one of the leading media organisations.
01:55Then came motherhood, which taught flexibility in whatever I did,
01:59which meant that I had to step back and look at my career in a very different manner.
02:04And yet two things that I was good at, use some of my skill sets,
02:08storytelling and writing to begin with,
02:10and also add to that a little bit of background from TV production.
02:14So that's how I became a documentary filmmaker for many years.
02:16While I was a documentary filmmaker, I was also a freelance journalist.
02:20And I also started to realise that truth often came in the form of stories,
02:24in the form of fiction.
02:25In fact, you were closer to truth or the truth that you were seeking
02:29when they were told in the form of fiction.
02:31So that led me to, on a quest of looking for a lot of answers
02:35through these fictional characters, even though they came from real life.
02:38And that's how I became a fiction writer and started to write for radio
02:41and I started to write in prose as a medium.
02:43Hindi is my primary medium.
02:45I've always largely written in Hindi.
02:48So that's how I became an author.
02:51I was a translator again, purely because I was at home.
02:54I wanted flexibility.
02:55I wanted career opportunities.
02:56I wanted to explore and I love languages.
02:58Hindi and English are the two languages that one has grown up with.
03:02We are all bilingual or sometimes try multilingual in the country that we are in.
03:06So it was only natural that I started to use that part of me.
03:09And then I started to translate a lot of books, edit, became a publisher.
03:13And then eventually screenwriting.
03:16I have a very funny story to tell, actually.
03:18And my kids were in a boarding school
03:21and I was actually going to drop them to the boarding school, which is on the hills.
03:24And we were driving through a very rainy day and a very slippery road
03:28and a boulder came crashing on the car.
03:30And we almost, I mean, it was crazy.
03:32We just somehow managed to...
03:34It's a miracle that we were saved, not a scratch to anybody.
03:37While I had my entire family in the car,
03:39my children were the most precious things, beings for me.
03:43And yet the first thought that came to my mind was
03:46I would have died without writing a film.
03:48And that was a defining moment in that sense.
03:50I was like, if screenwriting is what I wanted to be at some point in my life
03:53and I wanted to explore films as a medium, what is stopping me from doing that?
03:56Is that my age just because I'm 38, 39?
03:59I can't do...
04:00And that's how I came to Mumbai and started to look for opportunities.
04:04Thankfully, again, at a time when opportunities were in abundance
04:08because OTT was just about coming up.
04:10They were looking for female writers
04:11because suddenly there was this whole need of tapping into the female audience
04:16which is large and has largely been tapped by television
04:18but never by films or OTT.
04:21And so that's how I landed up with an Arya and Agrahan
04:24which happened simultaneously.
04:25And that's how I became a screenwriter.
04:27That sounds like an adventurous journey, Anu.
04:31So let's talk about Mrs.
04:34I mean, it has really managed to divide the audiences.
04:37And while the large section has been appreciative
04:40and many have identified with Richa's struggles
04:43there are some men rights activists who claimed
04:46that the men in the film have been unduly vilified.
04:50Did you foresee such a reaction?
04:52Or what are your thoughts about these kinds of claims?
04:54I actually, to be honest, did I foresee it?
04:57No, because when you're writing
04:59you're not writing it with a foresight of what it will do.
05:02All of us who were part of this film knew that an adaptation of a masterpiece
05:06which is Great Indian Kitchen
05:08would generate some kind of controversy and conversations
05:11because we were wanting to make it accessible.
05:13We wanted to take it to a larger audience.
05:15That was the purpose.
05:16And we also wanted to make it look like
05:18it was a story of our own homes.
05:19Great Indian Kitchen, while it is a great film
05:22let's admit it was told through Jio Baby's perspective
05:27who himself is a man.
05:28And not to take away anything.
05:29I mean, it's one of the most compassionate pieces of writing.
05:33And he's a master storyteller.
05:35He's a great filmmaker.
05:36And to take it from there and then make it your own
05:39because then you're bringing it your own lived experiences
05:42and lived experiences of a lot of women.
05:44We were acutely aware of the responsibility that was ahead of us
05:47which was to be able to never lose that balance of
05:53what is just and what is not.
05:55And there are microaggressions that happen
05:58within a familial system all the time.
06:00Like there is constant gender divide that's happening.
06:02And we are always like sort of
06:04those microaggressions always are brushed under the carpet.
06:07So how do you bring that in a way where it looks, it feels real?
06:11So here is the thing.
06:12These men are not vilified.
06:14They themselves don't know what they're doing.
06:17They're not aware.
06:18They have had no exposure.
06:20They're doing exactly what Richa's mother-in-law is doing
06:23or Richa's mother for that matter is doing.
06:25The women are as much flag bearers of the patriarchy
06:31or the kind of gender imbalance
06:33or the kind of roles that have been defined to them
06:36as much as these men are the vehicles
06:38or in that sense, victim of that.
06:41So they're only behaving
06:43or they're only coming from their space of conditioning
06:47where it is, of course, considered very normal to be entitled.
06:51So entitlement doesn't come with any form of,
06:54oh, even, oh, this is not supposed to be mine
06:56because it has never been challenged.
06:59So therefore, if it is challenged,
07:01there will be bound to,
07:02there will be obviously some sort of resistance
07:04and it's a very natural thing.
07:06You put some force, you've challenged your status quo
07:08and the status quo, which has been comfortable
07:10for a large sections of society, which is also powerful
07:14in that sense, which has always had the upper hand
07:17will feel threatened.
07:18And it is only natural.
07:21But does that mean that it should not be done?
07:24Does that mean that more films like Misses should not come?
07:26Does that mean that a richer should not really
07:30take up the challenge of doing what she does?
07:35I don't think so.
07:36In fact, as much as there is code resistance
07:39coming from men's rights organizations
07:41and a lot of anger coming from them,
07:45there's a larger section of men
07:49who are also accepting of it,
07:50who are also saying that, oh, this should have,
07:53I mean, they're queasy and they're uneasy
07:55and they're also reacting and they're saying
07:58that we didn't know this.
08:00Of course, there's this whole question of,
08:02oh, we live in nuclear families now.
08:07But to also understand this is one generation.
08:11I mean, if we have the privilege
08:12of not being in that situation,
08:14it was only a generation ago
08:16that our mothers were going through that.
08:18So if that kind of imbalance doesn't bother you
08:24or if that seems like a normal
08:27or you think that it should not be challenged,
08:29then there is clearly some problem in the evolution
08:32that we should have had as a generation.
08:34We are in the 25th year of the 21st century.
08:39And if we have had social media
08:41and all forms of expression and access to knowledge
08:45and so much like on all the matrix
08:48of what is known as a developed society done,
08:53we have really improved,
08:54say, in something as fundamental
08:56as infant mortality rate or maternity mortality rate.
09:00What's happening to the basic human rights
09:03that should have been given to the women within the kitchen?
09:05We've not been able to democratize kitchen.
09:08Is it not time that we ask that?
09:11So to answer your question,
09:12does it bother me or was I anticipating that?
09:16It doesn't bother me.
09:17In fact, it makes me very, very grateful and happy
09:21that these questions are being raised
09:22and these debates are happening
09:24and there's so much conversation that's happening around us.
09:28Does it make me uncomfortable to some extent?
09:30Because then it means that we haven't done enough.
09:33We haven't said enough stories.
09:35This should have been the normal.
09:37So you've leaned towards writing
09:40women-centric stories in your journey.
09:42There's a large part of my next question,
09:45which you've actually spoken about,
09:46but still, what is feminism in your understanding?
09:49Equal rights, like human rights.
09:52Feminism is humanism, as simple as that.
09:54Equal respect, opportunities, parity, equity.
10:02That is feminism to me.
10:04And do you think, are there any kinds of hurdles
10:08that you faced in the industry because of your gender?
10:11Yes and no.
10:12I'll start from no,
10:13because I actually did come at a time
10:16when actually being a woman was an advantage
10:20in the sense that I at least felt
10:22that I came with a lot of life experiences
10:24and at a time when the industry needed women's stories.
10:29So I have actually been given a lot of opportunities
10:33just because I laugh at the fact that sometimes
10:36I've been called and told by the producers of people that,
10:39oh, we're bringing you in
10:40because we want that female gaze and the lens.
10:43I really, I mean, initially I used to get very offended.
10:47Hello, I can write all kinds of characters,
10:49male characters too.
10:50And I'm a writer.
10:51I'm not just a woman writer.
10:54I'm a writer.
10:54My job is to write.
10:56But now I don't take so much offense.
10:59I'm like, okay, let's use this to our advantage.
11:01What can I bring to the table which is different
11:04and which a lot of my male colleagues who are,
11:08actually, by the way,
11:09I've had the best colleagues possible
11:11in terms of directors and co-writers that I've worked with.
11:14So, and they're very respectful of the fact
11:17that my life experience is very different from theirs.
11:19And therefore, I will be able to contribute better.
11:21And there is this openness to ask, to seek.
11:26And that, I think, is a big change
11:28that had happened to the industry in the last few years.
11:32I say yes, because, yes, I will still say
11:35that there has been some sort of challenge
11:37that one has faced only because of the fact
11:42that there are a lot of things that, as women, we can't do.
11:48And I'll begin from something as fundamental
11:50as networking at a place where you're not comfortable,
11:54not working with people you're not comfortable with.
11:58Saying no to situations which are not pleasant
12:02or which do not align with your core values
12:05or which are not respectful.
12:09And just in terms of,
12:12even though there's a very strong women network
12:14also in the industry,
12:15but there is also this whole, you know,
12:19this men's club, which is very integral.
12:22I mean, it has been a male-dominated industry.
12:25If you look at the data,
12:26writers, by the way, in terms of gender contribution,
12:3215% writers are women.
12:36But if you look at other technicians,
12:38actually, you will not find probably 4% or 5% DOPs,
12:44probably 8% to 10% editors.
12:46So we are far from coming close to, say, 50% also,
12:51even though there's so many writers out there now,
12:52women writers out there now, or directors even.
12:55So technicians, we're still far from coming to a place
13:00where there are equal number of men as much as women
13:04and whoever identifies as men or women or other gender.
13:09So there's a long, just in terms of inclusivity,
13:13we still have a long way to go.
13:17And yet, if you look back,
13:18you feel that we have,
13:20if we've managed to come here in the next decade or so,
13:24it'll get better.
13:25So I'm very hopeful.
13:26So Mrs. has been an adaptation of The Great Indian Kitchen
13:30and Arya of the series Pinozza.
13:33What are the challenges of adapting stories
13:35across languages and cultures?
13:38The first challenge is its success and beyond.
13:43That's the first thing.
13:45These are all already successful,
13:47very, very successful material.
13:48Therefore, they're being adapted or are being remade
13:50around finding other languages and other cultures
13:54to be able to take it to another kind of audience.
13:57So that's a burden of it.
13:59You have to therefore stay true to the core of the story.
14:06However, you also have to add a lot
14:09of your own originality to it
14:11in a way where it begins to look different
14:14and it's still as appealing as the original one.
14:17It's a fine line that you're constantly juggling.
14:21You're really walking a tightrope
14:24where you're constantly leaning onto the original material
14:28to see that you're not going away too much
14:31from the original material
14:33because you have to stay true to the original material.
14:35And yet culturally, when you're contextualizing,
14:38when you're finding new characters,
14:39when you're defining the voices of the characters,
14:42where you're looking at situations like scenarios,
14:45scenes that happen in the show or the film,
14:48you're trying to imagine it in a way
14:50which is relevant, far more relevant.
14:52So being true to the original material
14:58and yet being very, very original
15:00is the biggest challenge
15:01that anybody who's adapting goes through.
15:03And the second thing is also,
15:05sometimes it feels like you're always comparing yourself
15:08to the original material
15:10and you're always trying to up your game,
15:12which can feel like a burden.
15:14My coping mechanism has been that after a point,
15:17I completely let the original material go,
15:20which is what I think a lot of directors also
15:22that I've worked with,
15:23including Ram, who's been the showrunner and the director
15:26and the creator of Arya
15:27and Aarti Kadav, who's directed Written in Kitchen.
15:31They also came from that school of thought
15:33where we like really imbibed the original material
15:36and then we let it be.
15:37We kept it aside and never went back to it
15:39and then created our whole world
15:42while keeping the tenets of the original intact.
15:46So first we would identify the tenets
15:48that these are the non-negotiables
15:49and then we would find our way around it.
15:52And as a writer, my job was to make sure
15:54that that amalgamation was organic,
15:58so organic that it felt like a completely new world
16:01and new story and new characters
16:03and you didn't feel like you were seeing the same thing.
16:05And which of the two is more challenging,
16:08original writing or adaptation?
16:11They're both very difficult
16:12and they're both very challenging, to be honest.
16:14Writing is not easy in any form.
16:17You are constantly, I mean,
16:18you've been a writer, you would know
16:20that every time you're staring at a white screen,
16:26a blank screen, you don't know where to begin from
16:29and everything that you write
16:30just seems like a piece of trash.
16:34So you constantly, the original,
16:38because the original is challenging
16:40because then you constantly have to innovate
16:42and keep coming up with new ideas
16:44and new situations and new characters
16:47You really have to be original all the time.
16:50Adaptation, you have to be original very differently
16:52because you can't be the same.
16:53Your scene has to be very different from
16:55and yet be the same.
16:56You still have to meet those milestones
16:59from the original and yet do it differently.
17:01So I would really think they're both equally challenging
17:05and yet equally gratifying.
17:07And I'm very grateful that I've managed to do both.
17:11So what are the kinds of similarities
17:13and differences that you felt
17:15between writing as a literary activity
17:17because you've also been a writer
17:19and writing for cinema?
17:21The fundamental difference is that
17:23when you're writing for cinema,
17:24you're actually, your job is to create a roadmap
17:26not just for yourself
17:28but for 500 people who will access that roadmap,
17:30who will put together that project.
17:32It's very collaborative.
17:33You're still strict even though you're writing
17:35and you're the first one to put that roadmap together.
17:37It is really your brainchild
17:39but that brainchild is completely taken away from you.
17:42You therefore have to write in a way
17:44where it is accessible to everybody.
17:46So you have to be succinct.
17:47You have to be, brevity is the key word
17:49like in screenwriting.
17:51Whereas literary writing or prose writing
17:54allows you so much more freedom as a writer
17:57with language, with metaphors, with phrases,
18:01with just in terms of references
18:05that you want to use of readers
18:08of people who have influenced you
18:12or books that have influenced you.
18:14There's so much constant sort of inspirations
18:18that we're constantly drawing in our prose writing
18:21and we're doing that
18:22and more so from life than from anything else.
18:26Film doesn't allow you that.
18:27You only have 80 pages, 90 pages of script
18:31to really just like, you know, stick to
18:34and you cannot choose to be, you can't indulge.
18:39There is no scope of showing the flair of your language.
18:44It has to come in a dialogue.
18:47It has to come really briefly.
18:49Your screenplays even have to be even more,
18:52like even more succinct
18:54because you have to give space for the director to think.
18:57You have to give it to the actor
18:59for her to be able to imbibe it completely
19:01and make her own.
19:02And therefore you write some
19:05and you'll keep some to yourself
19:09for the actor to or director or other people
19:12to interpret it differently.
19:14So it's so different and it's so exciting.
19:17So you've done too many kinds of professional hats,
19:21which by God, it feels like,
19:22oh my God, what am I like?
19:23I am the most unstable person.
19:26Unstable professional.
19:30No, but still, even if you think it's been unstable,
19:33but the thing is that you've had that many experiences,
19:36that many kinds of experiences, right?
19:38And which one do you think has really pushed you
19:41into absolutely uncharted territories?
19:44And it's been like a real challenge
19:47or was the journey organic,
19:49like from being a journalist to coming here?
19:52Well, actually large, most of it felt organic.
19:55The one journey which is yet to be shown to the world
20:00in that sense,
20:01which completely threw me into unknown waters
20:04and I really felt like I was gasping for breath
20:06was when I decided to become a director,
20:09a previous producer director.
20:11So while it's a natural progression for a screenwriter
20:16to become a director,
20:17because you know your material so well
20:19that you can visualize it.
20:20And then you can begin to sort of also think
20:23that how do you want to see it, visualize it on screen?
20:25So it should have been a natural progression.
20:28And yet when I decided to just do a short film,
20:30I've directed before.
20:32I've directed documentaries
20:33and I've also directed a short web series a long time ago.
20:36But when I decided to direct a short film
20:40or now when I want to direct say a feature film,
20:43it's a completely different medium.
20:45Even though as a screenwriter,
20:47you know that medium in that sense.
20:49You know, you understand a lot about camera,
20:51you understand a lot about editing
20:53because you know that, okay, on paper,
20:55how you're writing and how it has been performed
20:57and how it has been put together
20:59and how it will eventually be edited.
21:01You know, there is a journey to it
21:02and you understand those steps,
21:04at least theoretically so, those steps of that journey.
21:08And yet when I chose to become a director,
21:11I didn't know what I was grappling with.
21:13I was like, I was at my wits end.
21:15Everything was new.
21:17You didn't know the camera angles.
21:18There was so many technical details that we didn't,
21:20I mean, I was not aware of.
21:22I didn't know where to put this lamp to,
21:25you know, have the face against the light
21:27and not against in shadow.
21:29So, and performances, you presume
21:33because in your head, you were writing those dialogues
21:35and you're playing it and you're playing those characters.
21:38But when you have to direct the actors
21:40and take out performances from them,
21:44it's a different ball game altogether.
21:45It's a different skill set.
21:47So that's when I felt like,
21:50this requires a lot more work
21:52and a lot more education
21:55and a lot more diligence.
21:58And do you think that,
22:01I mean, there's been a transformation
22:04in terms of opportunities,
22:06in terms of storytelling
22:07ever since the OTT boom happened.
22:10But do you think that
22:13previously before the OTT boom,
22:15do you think it was more difficult
22:17to be a woman screenwriter
22:19and it's slightly a better scenario now
22:22that you have this option?
22:23It was difficult to be a writer,
22:26a screenwriter, man, woman, not with standing.
22:30Writing, finding jobs as writer is very difficult.
22:36Unfortunately for a writer,
22:39everybody thinks they're writers.
22:41Every person worth his or her salt
22:45who knows anything about filmmaking,
22:48even not to diminish the position of,
22:52say, a spot dada or a light assistant.
22:56These are very integral part
22:57of the filmmaking process.
22:59But in their hearts of heart,
23:01they're also writers.
23:04They think they can also write
23:06what is being done.
23:08So as a writer,
23:10you're the first person to receive any criticism
23:13and you're the first person to be charged.
23:15So it's not easy to be a writer.
23:18The opportunities, of course,
23:19are far and few between,
23:20especially before the OTT.
23:24TV used to be a great opportunity
23:26for a lot of writers,
23:26which actually became a great source of livelihood
23:29for people who were wanting
23:31to make writing their careers.
23:33Films did not have those many opportunities.
23:35There were only this much space
23:37at the top of the pyramid.
23:39It became more and more competitive.
23:40Unfortunately for OTT,
23:42the boom that it was,
23:45the debacle also happened as quickly.
23:47Like the exponential growth
23:49was actually really directly proportional
23:52to the downfall that we're now seeing.
23:54The budget has been slashed.
23:57OTT is more and more looking like TV
24:00or what is known as TV plus plus now.
24:02So we are back to where we had started
24:05from five years, six years ago.
24:06So it's going to be even more difficult
24:08just in terms of opportunities.
24:10And it's going to be more and more challenging,
24:13more so for women writers
24:14because like I said,
24:16there's so many things
24:17that you can't compromise on.
24:19I know a lot of women writers
24:20were so discerning and so talented,
24:22but just as a matter of principle,
24:24they will not write about certain things ideologically.
24:28So that makes it more difficult.
24:30This kind of leads me to the next question,
24:34which is that in recent times,
24:36there's been a lot of talk
24:37around the precarious working conditions
24:39of screenwriters in Bollywood.
24:41And a lot of your fellow screenwriters
24:43have complained about not getting their dues
24:46financially or artistically.
24:48I was also one of them.
24:49Yes, we've all spoken about it.
24:52The seventh screenwriters conference just happened
24:54and we all got together
24:55and there has been this constant concern
25:00about how the tranches are being paid
25:02or the writers are being paid.
25:03The credits have been taken away from them.
25:06Also now more and more so
25:07because the royalties are going to be a real thing
25:09with the inception of screenwriters
25:14royalties society,
25:16which is known as SRAI,
25:19screenwriters royalties association of India.
25:22So then when royalties will become a reality,
25:26the share of the pie
25:28that the producers or the other people,
25:30other stakeholders will want
25:31will also become more and more stock.
25:35So it's just going to be anyway,
25:37it's very difficult.
25:38So we are still fighting for something
25:40called basic minimum contract,
25:41which is still not agreeable to a lot of producers
25:45and all one is asking for is,
25:47fundamentally there should be some,
25:50you must honor the time
25:51that the writer is assigning to a project.
25:55We often forget that the writer
25:56is the first technical person in that sense
25:58to be hired for the job.
26:00And she's or he's the one
26:02who's putting together the roadmap for you.
26:05And is the first person
26:06who's thrown out of the system
26:07as unceremoniously as one can imagine.
26:11We all know of writers who've been stonewalled
26:13whose credits have been taken away,
26:15who have not been given their media credit,
26:18sorry, due in the media.
26:20I have often said that all these OTT platforms
26:22and big studios
26:23when they're making announcements
26:25and these posters are coming,
26:27why are you not putting the name of the writers
26:29on the posters?
26:31Who's putting together the project?
26:32There would be no film if there was no script.
26:35So we are still fighting those very basic battles.
26:39And yes, it is.
26:41And given the situation,
26:43which is slump in the market,
26:47the bust of the OTT boom that happened,
26:53all of those things are also beginning
26:55to impact the livelihood opportunities.
26:57And there is this general sense of frustration,
27:01resentment, anger, disillusionment all over.
27:04So what can we do therefore becomes important.
27:08So what should be the next step?
27:09The first, actually the next step
27:11should be about unifying,
27:13like having a unified voice
27:15to really push forward
27:17some of these concerns that we're facing.
27:19And like the famous thing that,
27:22you know,
27:22steam writers are now saying
27:23that writer baap odda hai,
27:24Varun Guha said it,
27:25so many other writers are now saying,
27:27that's a fact,
27:28it's coming from the,
27:30job of the idea is coming from them,
27:31your script is coming from them,
27:33honor that.
27:37And value their work
27:39and pay them enough.
27:41And, you know,
27:44younger the writers are,
27:45the more,
27:46I hate to use the word,
27:47but junior,
27:48they're exploited even more,
27:50just as everywhere else,
27:51but in screenwriting world more so,
27:55because this is all freelance work,
27:57there's no stability,
27:58there's no medical insurance,
28:00there is no social security
28:03or any kind of security.
28:05There is a lot of just polarization
28:09on how we see our own rights
28:11within the writing community.
28:12So all of those challenges
28:14need to be addressed
28:15in a more concerted way,
28:17which is what
28:17Street Writers Association of India
28:19is doing now.
28:20And there is this leadership,
28:21which is constantly asking
28:23these questions again and again
28:24from the fraternity.
28:26So one can only hope that
28:29all these noises that are being made
28:31will result into something substantial.
28:35And as someone who has been a journalist,
28:38what do you think about
28:39the current state of the profession
28:41in the country?
28:42Personally speaking,
28:43what is the reason of it?
28:45And yet there is,
28:47there is what you guys are doing,
28:48what Outlook is doing,
28:50what a lot of alternative media
28:52organizations are doing,
28:53which is to keep the hope together
28:56and keep the faith on the fourth state
28:59as it is known,
29:00as it is known.
29:02But yeah,
29:04it's,
29:06what do you say?
29:07My beloved organization
29:09that I was once a part of
29:10is no longer what it used to be.
29:12And just my last question to you,
29:14I mean,
29:15after all of this,
29:16is there any other profession
29:17which is still left
29:20that you would want to pursue
29:22or, you know,
29:22you dream of moving into?
29:24Is there something down the line?
29:28Or are you really comfortable
29:30with being a screenwriter for now?
29:32And this is what you want to do
29:33more of this.
29:34No, I actually would want to be a teacher.
29:38I would want to be an academic.
29:40I would really want to teach.
29:42Someday I would want to finish my PhD.
29:45I mean, do my PhD and then start with it.
29:47Do my PhD and teach.
29:48You should.
29:51You have a lot of things to say in your PhD.
29:55Yeah.
29:56Okay, thank you so much.
29:57Thank you so much, Anu.
29:58It was wonderful talking to you.
30:00And I hope we meet someday
30:03and take these conversations forward.
30:06Yes, there's so much work
30:07that we have to do as,
30:09yeah, as storytellers and writers
30:11and journalists and filmmakers.