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Satish
Bhatnagar
A DISTINCT PLACE
The man’s contribution to literature film, TV and the quality
of his work gives him a distinct place in society. He is one of
those Indians whom every Indian should be proud of because of his
sheer genius, his body of work done down the years. His pipe (to
me) is a symbol of the blowing in and blowing out of ideas which
he followed carefully will lead to a clean clear and confident nation.
Satish Bhatnagar is 78. He was born in Shimla. He has written film
scripts for Hindi films, including 75 blockbusters. He also did
the screenplay for the TV serial Bahadur Shah Zafar (directed by
BR Chopra and Ravi Chopra), and conducted the research and wrote
the scenario of the TV serial Mahabharata produced and directed
by BR Chopra and Ravi Chopra and telecast by Doordarshan and BBC.
Prior to taking up script writing assignments in India, he worked
with BBC as their Listener Research Officer of the Eastern Services
and as a regular script writer and broadcaster in their English,
Hindi and Urdu Services. He translated the TV Mahabharata serial
into English for BBC. As a freedom fighter, he is the recipient
of the Tamra Patra from the Government of India, and now receives
the Swatantrata Sainani Samman pension. He is an elected Fellow
of the Royal Asiatic Society for his work in Mass Communications.
FILM SCRIPT WRITING
A good script is essential to a good film, and therefore scriptwriting
is a fundamental and the most vital part of filmmaking. In Bollywood
more often than not film producers tend to get on with the filming
and keep saying, "we will work out the script as we go along!"
Nothing is more fatal. Such ignoring of the script is always expensive
in the long run and always leads to an unsuccessful and disappointing
film. Make no mistake, script writing is difficult. It is mentally
exhausting and makes a considerable strain on your powers of visualising
in advance what you hope to see weeks, possibly months, later on
the screen. So we must never start exposing even a foot of film
till we are satisfied that we have done our utmost on the script.
A film story is the record of how some imaginary person copes with
life or a given situation. It satisfies a need in us by the way
it gives a sense of form and order to our chaotic world. An effective
story does this by its use of desire and danger. It gives a sense
of identification to its viewers and manipulates tension in them.
It poises the audience for action and then relaxes them. People
see films because they find this ebb and flow of tension stimulating
and pleasurable, observed Dwight V Swain, the eminent filmmaker
who made Retire To Life which dealt with the Retirement Problem
and old age.
To-day writers are invariably asked to copy foreign films. This
is very bad indeed. In fact it is the only negative side of globalisation
which is giving all its products a standard look and killing ethnic
cultures.
We must develop or select stories from our own soil so that our
viewers can identify and empathise with them. In any film conflict
it helps if you involve your audience in the struggle because human
beings all over the world are alike in one way. They like to share
the feelings and experiences of others. When starting to write a
film it is best to select a topic that strikes you as holding potential
for capturing your viewer’s attention so that he is drawn to
it on a personal level.
The next stage is to develop the topic in a unique angle from which
to view it. This helps to arouse your audiences further because
it gives them food for their thought in addition to the entertainment
they receive.
Some ancient philosopher thought motion is the essence of life and
movie writers must never forget this golden saying, for things in
motion have a photographic magic of their own. Movement is for the
scriptwriter what words are to the author. Movement is the basic
material of the script. It helps photography to interpret human
dream. However, movement must be selected for its significance.
The script writer must appreciate that it is not only the highlight
actions which are filmed in movement - the minutest movement may
clearly and effectively define a mood, for example, a romantic relationship
may be conveyed by a glance.
Shot composition, changing the shot, camera angles, movement through
panning to emphasise a point are some of the other technical aspects
of telling a story through moving pictures.
In India these technicalities are still considered to be the job
of a director; but in the countries abroad scripts are written in
shots and not in scenes as we do in India. However, for an Indian
screenplay writer too, knowledge of such technicalities is essential.
Creative literary writers have often failed to become successful
scriptwriters in films because they do not know the craft necessary
to become a successful screenplay writer. They are acknowledged
masters in the field of literature but lack cinematic visualisation
and the craft of creating moving images telling a story.
As told to Ali Peter John
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