Cofession

I have not written anything for the blog in last few months because I was busy writing the script of the film that I want to direct. The script has been handed over to an actor-if he reads it and if he likes it then I will move ahead and finalise the other details. You must have noticed that I have written 'if he reads it'- well over here some of the actors read the script if it is backed by a well known production house or a powerful producer. My script does not have anyone backing it at the moment. If at all I start the production it will be with my money. In fact the funniest story that I have heard is of Akshay Kumar willing to do the disastarous 'Chandni Chowk To China' by just looking at the poster of the film! Most of the time the actors dont' have the time, the patience or the intelligence to read a script. They are surrounded by people who constanly give them an ego massage. So much so that they are always on 'cloud nine'. The only person I have met who has his feet on the ground is Aamir- and Aamir certainly knows a good script from a bad one. Who would have backed a preditable 'Lagaan' or a Heroineless 'Taare Zameen Pe'? Except Aamir nobody would have.

About a year back the corporate houses had got in to the film business in a big way. In fact they also pretended that they were looking at fresh ideas and scripts. When the fact was that behind the doors they were only 'signing' the big names. These 'big names' took the corporate houses for a jolly good ride. Most of them are still applying balm to their burnt fingers.One of my friend, a filmmaker who has already made his debut film, played a smart trick on a corporate house. Before that let me tell you what these coporate 'set ups' were like. The corporate 'set ups' had script readers. These were highly paid people who read the scripts that were summitted. Believe me these script readers cannot communicate in proper English or Hindi. Anyway above the script readers were the 'experts' from the movie industry -again very highly paid writers that had written hit films in the past. That they were now retired and unwanted by the movie industry is another matter. My friend downloaded a script from the net of a super hit hollywood film. He changed the names of the characters and submitted the same to this coporate house. The corporate house rejected the script -the reason was that the script was not up to the mark! In another instance he just photocopied the first fifteen pages of a script a number of times put them together in script form and gave it to the corporate house. The reply that he got after a few months was hilarious. The corporate house wrote that his script was good however they would be unable to produce it as they were looking at a different genre. In fact they urged him to submit another script in that genre!