THE FIRST DRAFT

With one eye on the page count, I kept hitting the keys till the number touched 90 and then 91. So there it was finally, 91 pages of screenplay! I printed it out and what can one say? Nothing quite matches the feeling of holding a first draft in one’s hand, fresh off the printer.

The last ten pages happened more from the fingers less from the mind. You don’t have an idea in your head, you just keep putting down the thought that comes up and the next one follows when ugh, there is an interruption and the thought is gone forever. Then once again you get back to it and you take the blind plunge and then something else comes up. Never think that the thought you lost was better. Never chase that lost thought. Just keep going, accepting what is happening. The last lines were finally written and my daughter was in the room and I exclaimed, ‘I’ve done it!’ And bless her, for she clapped for me.

The point I’m trying to make is that the script happened because I just put my head down and got the thing moving. At the time I started, I believed that I did not have the resources to even write the script. Yes, a screenplay needs resources. It needs time, it needs the author to be in a sense of security and comfort and it needs a degree of quietness and isolation. Without those things, at least for me, writing is difficult. And the easiest thing to do is to put it off for some other day when the situation will be perfect. But such a day may never come. So if you want to write a screenplay, do please get going!

As I was printing out the screenplay, it so happened that my dear mom-in-law was visiting. When you get the print out in your hands, every fiber of your being wants to hand it to someone who will read it and tell you what he or she thinks of it. But you need the right person for that and my mom-in-law it so happens is a traveler, a writer and a well-known actress. She played the lead in Satyajit Ray’s KANCHENJUNGHA and she’s a prolific actress even today. What more could I ask for?


I waited with bated breath as she read the script. When she had finished reading it, she told me that she had found it interesting. She asked for a few clarifications and I noted them down. I will be working on those things when I do the rewrite.