Art & Entertainment

A Frame Of Her Own

More and more women are entering Salim-Javed territory. Is the script changing for the better...half?

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A Frame Of Her Own
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B
Black
I Am Sam
Main Aisa Hi Hoon
Chura Liya Hai Tumne
Musafir
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Venita Coelho: An ex-TV pro, she penned Musafir and Chura Liya Hai Tumne

Scriptwriting in Bollywood is a rather bizarre profession. For, most of the time, writers don't matter. When they do, it's only to be asked to lift wholesale from successful foreign films—an Oldboy here, a Collateral there. In the hierarchy of credits, they figure lower than lyricists and singers and are amongst the lowest paid of the 'technicians'. It's also a profession where men have always mattered more. In the world of Salim-Javed, there has been one Honey Irani (of Lamhe fame) and a few women directors like Tanuja Chandra and Leena Yadav who have written their own films. Writing another man's film is a difficult nut to crack. So are Bhavani and Venita and the half dozen other women now writing Bollywood scripts making any difference, or is it just more of the same?

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Shibani Bathija scripted two b.o. biggies this year, Fanaa and KANK
Fanaa
KANK
Roti
Stardust
Bombay Talkies
Black
Neal 'n Nikki
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Rekha Nigam wrote for period piece Parineeta

Similarly, Rekha Nigam was creative director and later senior V-P, programming, for Sony. "Corporate life wasn't exciting me," she says, so she co-wrote a script with Aditya Chopra that never got made. Eventually she jumped at the opportunity to write the dialogues for Pradeep Sarkar's Parineeta.

On to Renuka Kunzru. The psychology graduate taught kids, worked in the ad world, in Sony Music and Win Radio till the flair for writing got catalysed. "It was an interesting phase. I had moved out to be on my own, had broken off with the boyfriend of many years. It was a fertile time," she says. She wrote Nach Baliye and Dil Kya Chahta Hai on TV, got fatigued by TV's factory system, wrote a script with Abbas Tyrewala for Sandeep Chowta called Jasmine which is yet to be shot. And she has just wrapped up the screenplay for Sajid Khan's multi-starrer, Hey Baby.

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Renuka Kunzru: The psych grad has one film on the floors, Hey Baby

The odd one out here is Shagufta Rafique. A school dropout and daughter of former actress Anwari Begum, she was groomed to become an actress herself. "But I couldn't see myself performing," she says. She assisted Mahesh Bhatt in Sir, did a few serials on DD, even sang in dance bars. "It wasn't easy working in a place like that, but it was necessary to chase my dreams. I was abused and humiliated, even called a prostitute," she says. She's written Mohit Suri's soon-to-be-released film, Woh Lamhe, based on the Bhatt-Parveen Babi relationship.

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Shagufta Rafique: Her Woh Lamhe is based on the Bhatt-Babi affair
Dhokha
Transmission
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Bhavani Iyer: Credits include Black and Main Aisa Hi Hoon
Hamlet
Swami
Lage Raho Munnabhai
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