Screenwriters From India

"Is there anything left to be said about a man who, at 61, still manages to star in one of the most successful films of the year, not just in the south, but across India? Superstar Rajini once again proved that he is the actor with the Midas touch with the sci-fi flick Endhiran, where he played an ambitious scientist, a naive robot and an evil android bent on destroying the world … He did it with such aplomb that he's been the talk of the town for months. He might do one film in two years, but when he does, he pulls out all the stops."

"Today, the Ramakrishna Math, at Bangalore’s Gavipuram locality, is an oasis of calm amidst a traffic snarl typical to the city. In the 1950s, the area was considerably quieter, and the math provided a degree of calmness to the young Shivaji. It is at the math where the boy learnt the foundations of religion and the tenets of spirituality. The math instilled a basic sense of calm and an inner stillness in Shivaji."

"The young audience of today defines Rajinikanth solely by his popular — and populist — roles, conveniently forgetting that, like his contemporary Amitabh Bachchan, it takes talent to make a formula work and something much more than mere talent to transcend it and achieve greatness."

"My dream has come true. He has become a superstar. I am the happiest person in the world today as Sivaji is being released. Maybe I am happier than Rajnikant's wife."

"He never let me fall. In 2003, when I wanted to leave everything behind, it was Ramnath Sengupta who cajoled me back to the material world"."

"The war between the two fan clubs stopped only about 15 years ago. We both told them to stop after there were stray incidents of violence on both sides. Considering fans have killed each other for our distinguished predecessors, MGR and Shivaji Ganesan, our fans can be considered pacifists (laughs). I went ahead and set a new precedent. I turned my fan club into a social service organisation."

"There was an incident early in our careers when he was riding pillion on a motorbike with me. When I skidded, Rajini asked if I knew how to ride. I assured him even if I fell, I wouldn't let him fall."

"And most of them were hits, though we did have failures. We've done three films for our mentor K. Balachander. I've also done guest roles in Rajni's films. I'd do anything he asks me to, no question of refusing him."

"Rajni and I have been leaning on each other's shoulders for so many years. In fact, once during a shoot in Singapore, we did just that. The director didn't know it was just an excuse to doze off in-between shots (laughs). We would be roaming all over Singapore, all night. We returned at 3 am and were on the sets for a 6 am schedule. We caught up on our sleep, on the sets."

"Rajni is a phenomenon. Both of us were young actors who started from scratch. He was the bus conductor with acting aspirations. I was the clapper boy. It's quite strange, but our paths as actors were always intertwined."

"I'd do anything he asks me to, no question of refusing him."

"I realized the wow factor of my dad then. I cannot recall when I started becoming his fan but I remember every first day, first show of him, I have been on the chair whistling and enjoying his films. So, I think, he is him. One thing everyone knows about him is not hidden. How he is at home and how he is at stage, how he is with everybody else, he is the most honest human being you can ever find so ya, I think I am blessed. I can say the world I am blessed ten thousand times and still I'll be saying I am blessed to be born to him."

"I think star children in general are born into that atmosphere. We are born into that scenario when things are larger than life. My father was a superstar when he got married. So, when I was born that was the only thing I saw. But during school days, the way others spoke with us, that is the time when we start thinking and we start wondering about things and asking questions and then we realize the wow factor,""

"The biggest superstar, Rajnikanth sir! Unko puri duniyan chahthi hein. There are people like me who don't understand South-Indian languages, but still I'm a big fan of him. His style, his acting and his entire on-screen persona, simply blows you away."

"Rajinikanth’s story is straight out of the movies: Boy from the wrong side of the tracks makes it big. Born Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, he had a wild childhood and even wilder youth where his pranks got him into all kinds of trouble:The tale of how he moved from bus conductor to stage to screen is too well known to retell.there was a talent which his friends recognised and people noticed first on stage. His wild ways were temporarily tamed when playwright and director ‘Topi’ Muniappa offered him a chance to act in mythological moral plays. The story goes that he played the villainous Duryodhana so well, he was applauded by old men when he was ripping off Draupadi’s sarees."

"In an autobiography, I will have to write the truth, I should not hide anything. Just to avoid people’s feelings, I should not be hiding things. If I don’t present events as they happened, truthfully, it is not an autobiography at all. I have read Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography and if I can muster up the kind of courage that he had, I will write one."

"That's what happened in our career. He never let me fall. In 1983, when I wanted to leave everything behind, it was Kamal Haasan who cajoled me back to the material world."

"I have a brother in Bangalore. SP is my brother in Chennai."

"Sir, in K. Balachander's unit, the dialogue for an entire film was only this much."

"Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, he has overseen the development of that city"

"Yes, upon seeing some people during my visits to the Himalayas. They seem to have an inner peace and tranquility that we do not."

"I cannot be an ordinary man, move around like people do, go out eat in a restaurant or take a walk. Perhaps, this is what I have lost."

"That is not with me. It is up to the directors to give me roles that might fetch awards."

"With both Jeet and Prosenjit venturing into television, things are bound to hot up. We are hoping that things change for better now. It’s a bit like Shah Rukh Khan hosting Kaun Banega Crorepati and Salman Khan hosting Dus ka Dum. The shows have been evidently designed keeping both these star’s image in mind."

"I have a Defined Goal - A Dream - and I am trying to get there. Wholeheartedly, Yes, I leave nothing out. I Believe - The Regrets in Life are the Risks not taken.""

"Soumitra Chattopadhyay is the only person in Tollywood who has the equivalent stature as of Amitabh Bachchan. So, why does Soumitra always have to be a father or uncle or grandfather, or just have work in serious roles or portray depressing characters? What is wrong if Soumitra acts in a role that is different from the usual roles he plays? If Bollywood can do experiments, then what is wrong in experimenting things in Tollywood?"

"We passed on the email to the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association. They have informed Lalbazar’s anti-piracy cell. We’ve also informed Bhawani Bhavan and will write to the copyright authorities."

"The moment there’s a foreigner in a film it gives a novelty to the script. We make regional films and we need to hype our films."

"Mani Kaul was one of the greatest auteurs of New Wave Indian Cinema. His films reflected his personal creative vision. Kaul was a man with a luminous mind who pioneered the parallel cinema movement in India. His films explored a new language and expression. Innovative imagery, vocabulary and experimentation were his forte. His debut film Uski Roti was a landmark film in Indian cinema. He was deeply influenced by Robert Bresson, Andrei Tarkovsky and Ritwik Ghatak, though he made a mark of his own."

"I have also registered complaints against errant taxi drivers. Although they have promised action, let’s see how they’re going to follow it up. But overall it’s a very useful page for commuters."

"I'm so lucky that he agreed. A fascinating tale."

"Even in Death they had a thing in common, Pain."

"Anjan Dutta is one of the most interesting persons I have ever met."

"I am insane, with small intervals of horrible sanity."

"I believe the essence of the Independence Day is missing. We celebrate it like any other holiday, which is wrong. We must celebrate our independence everyday, not just on one day of the year."

"I always felt that the telefilm directors made wonderful films, which are even better than the big screen movies, but never got enough opportunities to showcase their talents on the big screens."

"The FM channels are as popular as TV. People are hooked to the radio all day. So, when the same medium strongly publicises the piece, people are bound to keep listening to it."

"Though Mitra’s case was different because it was a heart attack, I shudder to think what would have happened if an accident occurs in one of these studios. With no professional medical practitioner in attendance, things became difficult."

"The recent trend of the Bengali film industry is to remake South Indian films. My film had a mockery about that since I don’t believe in remakes. I won’t make a film which is a copy of something. I am very firm in my beliefs, even if that causes me to lose a few producers. There are many people who are making loads of remakes. But at the same time, there are many newcomers who have original ideas, working on new things, and getting producers. It is obviously a bright side of the shoel thing."

"Maula Bakhsh, a peasant, lives in Tamil Nadu and speaks Tamil. In Andhra Pradesh he speaks Telugu. In Bengal, his language is Bengali. Do we think of such a Muslim for whom I have invented the name Maula Bakhsh. Jinnah, Khaliquz Zaman, Maulana Azad, the Aga Khan, M.C. Chagla and the Raja of Mehmudabad... were Muslims. So was Hakku, the elderly grandmother of our locality. She prays 5 times a day. She was so deeply moved by one of Gandhi's speeches that she would repeat his name after Allah and His Prophet. At the age of 70, she stitched her own khadi kafan, because she did not want her body to be wrapped and then buried in a foreign cloth. So when people discuss India's Muslims, I wonder who are they talking about. Maula Bakhsh? Jinnah and Co.? Or Hakku?"

"When you see what goes on inside a slaughterhouse, I think you'll lose your appetite for animal flesh, too… Animals feel pain, just as people do. They value their lives, just as we value ours. They're terrified by the sights and smells of the slaughterhouse, and they fight for every last breath. I hope you'll also make the compassionate choice to go vegetarian."

"I am the kind of guy who believes that films are supposed to be entertainment. I do not subscribe much to movies that leave you with a lingering feeling, make you feel angry or depressed. I am not yet ready to make films like that. I have grown up with films that are entertaining. Since I am such a huge fan of entertainment, I believe that the films that I do should also be entertaining, people can talk about it for three days and forget about it."

"It was herself she was exhausted by. She had lost the ability to keep her discrete worlds discrete—a skill that many consider to be the cornerstone of sanity. The traffic inside her head seemed to have stopped believing in traffic lights. The result was incessant noise, a few bad crashes and eventually gridlock. (p235)"

"Roy combines brilliant reportage with a passionate, no-holds-barred commentary. I salute both her courage and her skill."

"I have always criticised violence in my speeches but the way the trouble in just two per cent of the area is blown up and used against us should be countered. Arundhati Roy paints Gujaratis as rapists and then goes scot-free by apologising. Isn't it an insult to Gujarat?"

"And concomitantly, Roy has put her brilliant linguistic skills to the service of "truth". Read her graphic details—"The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burnt them alive"... Anyway, it reads heart-rendingly honest. Heart-rending, yes, but honest, no. Jaffri was killed in the riots but his daughters were neither "stripped" nor "burnt alive". T.A. Jafri, his son, in a front-page interview titled 'Nobody knew my father's house was the target', says, "Among my brothers and sisters, I am the only one living in India. And I am the eldest in the family. My sister and brother live in the US. I am 40 years old and I have been born and brought up in Ahmedabad." So, Roy is lying—for surely Jafri is not. But what about the hundreds of media lies that haven't been exhumed as yet? Her seven-page long (approx: 6,000 words) hate charter against India and the Sangh parivar is woven around just two specific cases of human tragedy, one of which—by now, we know for sure—is a piece of fiction. The rest is hyperbole, punctuated with venom and vitriol to demonise the parivar. Precisely this type of demonisation had resulted in the macabre incident at Godhra. The vicious propaganda unleashed by the secularists for over a decade had made ordinary and gullible Muslims see the innocent Ram sevaks as demons who deserved to be burnt alive."

"There are already communities actively experimenting and developing solutions… What I work on is not how we find solutions but how we scale to transform our society...there’s the writing by Arundhati Roy, which is that another world is not only possible, but it is already here. And finding the pockets where this world has arrived, is what gives me hope."

"(I read in one sitting, it was that good:) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. After I finished my first reading, I immediately turned it over and began reading it again. I still read it, in whole or in part, almost every year."

"As Arundhati Roy writes: "There is beauty yet in this brutal, damaged world of ours. Hidden, fierce, immense. Beauty that is uniquely ours and beauty that we have received with grace from others, enhanced, reinvented and made our own. We have to seek it out, nurture it, love it." Yes, there is beauty to uncover still. It won't disappear the despair, or grief, or heartbreak, but it can, perhaps, prevent us from sinking into them."

"The writer Arundhati Roy asserted that a pregnant Muslim woman had been murdered and then her foetus ripped from her womb by rioters. When it became clear that nobody knew of the incident and Roy was asked to come and help the police inquiry to find the unfortunate victim, she replied through her lawyers that there was no power which could compel her to attend. She claimed in addition that Ehsan Jafri's daughters had been murdered alongside him at Gulbarg Society. This prompted Jafri's son to write from the United States that there was only one daughter and she was in the US with him."