“Authors should be given their due” says Sonam Kapoor at MAMI

Sonam Kapoor promotes the Jio MAMI Word To Screen market.

Sonam Kapoor addresses the media at the Jio MAMI festival ‘Word to Screen’ market.

Sonam Kapoor, an avid reader believes that writing is the backbone of films and that writers should get their due. At the Jio MAMI festival’s ‘Word to Screen’ initiative she said that she has always been open to adapting literary pieces. Already having done one by adapting Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ into Aisha she looks forward to doing more of them.

She says the main reason for writers not getting their due is because they work behind the scenes and that has resulted in poor quality of cinema. A major improvement in scripts will be seen once writers are empowered she says. Kapoor has already bought the rights to two books namely Govinda and Battle for Bittora. “I don’t know if I will be a part of these films, it really depends on the way they are written” she says.

She’s quite disheartened though by the lack of reading habit of most youngsters and she’s doing her bit to promote the fact that through books one can create great film adaptations. Her love for books even prompted the thought of becoming a librarian when she was young, while that didn’t happen Kapoor has accumulated a massive collection of books. Which is why its fitting that she was chosen as the brand ambassador for the event. Kapoor opines that words have always been mightier than a sword and can really influence people. She says that social media has given a platform and access to so many people that the power to write is being misused. “People are saying things without understanding the consequences of it” she says. More emphasis should be laid how these opinions can influence people and form opinions in their minds.

The aim of Jio MAMI Word to Screen is eventually to provide a platform that gives a chance to content creators to access the best books and and turn them into narratives for other media, and widen the horizons of storytelling.