‘Actors still don’t get bound scripts’

'Actors still don't get bound scripts'

Jha, who has directed 25 films and has taken part in the Indian Scriptwriters' Conference aimed at educating writers about their rights and remuneration module, says, "I'm amazed but it's true that even today actors are not given a bound script with a proper screenplay before the shooting starts. There is a trust problem among the people of the industry. Directors don't want to let go of the entire script, god knows why? Maybe they think their story will be leaked out to the media but it's an insane and a juvenile approach to film-making. We keep shouting that we are looked at in the same light as the West, or our films are so this and so that but at the end of the day we are not mature enough to do the basic things like providing a proper script."

He adds, "There are some film-makers who write screenplays on the spot. Can you believe this? They start making the film and then depending how the story is progressing, they write the next scene. How will we make good cinema if we don't stop doing these things and raise the bar for ourselves?"

The other renowned panellists in the conference were Javed Akhtar, Kamal Haasan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Rajkumar Hirani, Anurag Basu, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Jalees Sherwani, S.M.Vasanth, Abbas Tyrewala, Anurag Kashyap, Amole Gupte, Anjum Rajabali, Sriram Raghavan, Atul Tiwari, Shridhar Raghavan, Jalees Sherwani, Imteyaz Hussain, BR Ishara, Govind Nihalani, Amol Palekar, Jabbar Patel, Vinay Shukla, Rohan Sippy, Vipul Shah and Subhash Ghai. Jha says all of them believe that the future writers should be informed about their rights.

"The conference is about the issue of screenwriters' professional rights, about credit protection, how will they deal with royalties, what are the problems confronting the writer-director and the writer-producer relationship. These are very valid and important issues that every writer entering or in the profession should know. We have a very good talent pool. People are writing well. The standard is good but they should be well informed. In this age when everything is getting corporatised, writers should know what their rights are and what they should do to protect them."

Though tight-lipped about his forthcoming project Rajneeti, Jha informs us that his directorial venture will take off in February and they were still in the process of casting an international face opposite Ranbir Kapoor, the protagonist of the film.

Hmm that is interesting one of the things madhuri said on KWK was that now they have bound scripts compared to before..i am sure that changes need to be made on the spot when things do not work.