MUMBAI: The first-ever writers Masterclasses conducted by Indiantelevision.com as a part of the fourth edition of its Vidnet summit saw some of the best writers from the world of TV, cinema, and OTT in presence. The varied sessions were graced by writers of series like Sacred Games, Little Things, and Mirzapur.
The proceedings of the day were opened by Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari, also an avid writer, who motivated the community of creators in the room to work on their craft continuously despite the rejections that come their way. He said a good writer is the one who never gives up. Wanvari also promised the audience a Masterclasses on the legal aspects of writing and selling stories in the coming months.
Post that, the first session was conducted by Jaya Misra, who has written shows like Cold Lassi Aur Chicken Masala, and Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain. She briefed the audience about the process of writing stories and screenplays for web. She noted that it is important to develop characters to make a story compelling. Speaking about the pitching process, Misra said that it is important to network and make cold calls.
She also revealed that her debut book Kama, which is based on the life of Kamasutra’s writer Vatsyayana, is being converted into an international web series.
The next speaker was Mirzapur and Inside Edge writer Puneet Krishna who shared his journey of coming out with a show like Mirzapur. He revealed that he wrote the first 40-page long draft of the first season in just three days as the story was living in him since he was a child.
About the craft of writing, he also insisted that the differentiator of a good story is the characters, which need to be written elaborately. He added that it is equally important to cast the right faces for the characters and the writers should fight with the producers, if need be, to get the right names on-board.
Next on stage was Mayur Puri, the talented and versatile screenwriter, lyricist, and filmmaker who entertained the audience with an informative and light-hearted chat. He started his session by saying that there is not a concept of value for money in the OTT space right now and that needs to be developed.
Puri also said, “When it comes to animated content, we have a colonial mindset. But we need to get rid of it. We will have to respect stories from within the country. That will happen but it will take some time.”
About the pitching process, he said that one needs to be a compelling narrator along with a sharp script-writer to sell the concepts. He said that the script should be as detailed as it can be for better adaptations on screen. “There is little art in scriptwriting but a lot of craft. It is not like writing novels. It is like an instruction manual. You should know your grammar because the better you can explain, the better the film or show will come out.”
After lunch, the sessions commenced with Rangbaaz writer Siddharth Mishra who elaborated on the complete process of writing the show, right from the stage of the inception of the concept, to writing, to development, to production. He shared that the first season of the series was created in less than three months.
He said, “My first pitch to the producers of Rangbaaz was ‘I want to make a gangster drama but I want to show the human side of gangsters. It is not to humanise them but to show that gangsters become gangsters for a reason.”
He also added that he had planned to show 9 different stories in one season but on the demand of the producers and the platform he had to expand each episode in a 9-episode series.
“This helped me in developing better characters and writing for them. It was beneficial as it made the protagonist look more real and not fictional,” he stated.
Speaking about the right length of the episodes on OTT, Mishra said, “According to me 30-35 minutes is the perfect binge-watch timing. After that, the audience starts feeling that could have been edited.”
Next up was Little Things and Adulting writer/actor Dhruv Mishra who stated that the first step to be a good screenwriter is to write good screenplays. He also focused on the importance of developing defined character arcs to get the platforms as well as the audiences interested.
Following it was a panel discussion between Thinkistan producer & creative producer Rajnish Lall and writer-director N Padmakumar, moderated by TVF founder and promoter and author-in-progress Arunabh Kumar.
The Thinkistan team talked about the story and the production values and the planning for a show. They communicated that the inspiration of the show came from the decades that they had spent working as advertising professionals.
The final session was conducted by the young writers from Sacred Games 2 writer room, Dhruv Narang, Pooja Tolani, and Nihit Bhave.
The trio elaborated on the basic structure of a newsroom, how Varun Grover led them with the writing of Sacred Games season 2, and what role do the agents play in the life and career of a writer.
The day was well-received by the audience who praised the effort and interacted with the creators in free-wheeling chat sessions. A parallel directors & editors Masterclasses was also conducted.
