Real Vs Reel: Indian Screenwriters In the Mood to Introspect

The 4th Indian Screenwriters Association rolls out tomorrow with some of Bollywood’s biggies participating.

Gulzar, Kamlesh Pandey and Hema Malini at the 3rd Indian Screenwriters Conference. (Photo courtesy: Facebook/FilmWritersAssociation)

The 4th Indian Screenwriters Conference organised by the Film Writers Association (FWA) is all set to roll on August 3rd and surprise, surprise... the keynote speaker isn’t a Bollywood wordsmith but renowned journalist and Ramon Magsaysay award winner P Sainath.

Will Sainath berate writers from the film industry for forgetting rural India in their scripts? Or will the man articulate his thoughts on how state censorship is stifling creativity and how it’s just a sign of things to come? Well, honestly no one knows. The subject of Sainath’s inaugural speech remains a secret for even the FWA, but the ensuing sessions that are set to take place during the 2-day conference look quite promising.

The Indian Screenwriters Conference made a humble debut in 2006 at FTII, Pune with 275 participants. The venue later shifted to an institute near Film City in Mumbai in 2008 with 575 writers and filmmakers signing up for it. The third ISC was held with over 700 participants in 2013.

Akshat Verma, Habib Faisal, Pubali Chaudhuri, Reema Kagti and Juhi Chaturvedi at the 3rd Indian Screenwriters Conference. (Photo courtesy: Facebook/FilmWritersAssociation)

The conference this year promises to be bigger and better with names like Juhi Chaturvedi, Ronnie Screwvala, Himanshu Sharma, Meghna Gulzar and Ritesh Sidhwani participating in 7 different sessions over August 3rd and 4th. The theme this year is ‘So Near, So Far: Do Our Stories Reflect India’s Reality?’ and topics at the event include ‘Changing Gender Equation in Film’ , ‘Writers & Producers: Partners or Adversaries?’, ‘Writers’ Rights: Are Agents and Lawyers the Answer?’ and ‘The Business of TV Writing - Making of the Writer’.

Over the years the ISC has become a sort of mecca for screenwriters and filmmakers to gather together, gain new perspective and raise pertinent issues.

Busy neck-down in front of the laptop or hopping meetings burdened with “aaj narration hai”, writers live a solitary life because of the nature of their profession. Seldom do we get a bird’s eye-view of the bigger picture, where do we fit in? Where is the trend going? What are the new developments? How can my abilities blend with the current demands of the industry? The ISC gives a unique platform for such introspection besides an opportunity to mingle.

<b>Manisha Korde, Writer and Co-convener 4th Indian Screenwriters Conference</b>

Javed Akhtar has a question for the panelists at a session during the 3rd Indian Screenwriters Conference. (Photo courtesy: Facebook/FilmWritersAssociation)

The digital media boom will also come under focus this year for the first time in a session titled ‘Decoding the Digital Platform’ on August 4th. The panelists here include Biswapati Sarkar (TVF), Varun Grover (Masaan, Aisi Taisi Democracy), Satya Raghavan (You Tube) and Nikhil Taneja (Y Films).

So if you are a writer, filmmaker or even aspiring to be one, there’s no reason you wouldn’t want to show up for this 2-day extravaganza.