Hirani believes stories come from small towns, as people there have ‘exposure to life’
Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani says that while in big cities people do not get time to meet even friends, in small town, he used to just walk into a neighbour’s home unannounced.
“I strongly believe stories [for films] come from small towns. People have more exposure to life there. In big cities, especially like Mumbai, all the time goes in travelling,” he says.
“I grew up in a small town and we could just walk into a neighbour’s house. Here, in Mumbai, we don’t have the time to even meet our friends. Stories are out there. It’s just that we have to find them and I feel writing needs to be taught in a way that they can become proper screenplays.”
Talking about circumstances of writers while writing a film script, the maker of PK (2014) says, “I think writers need to be respected a little more financially. They are the foundation of every film and unless you pay the writer probably the maximum amount of money in your film, you won’t find good writers... it’s a big struggle for writers.”
In big cities, all the time goes in travelling. I grew up in a small town and we could just walk into a neighbour’s house. RAJKUMAR HIRANI FILMMAKER
He says that he has witnessed screenwriters struggling to sustain. “I have seen, in Mumbai, people are trying to write four scripts at the same time because they are not sure which one will start and which one will work. A small token money is given to them for experimenting by saying that ‘you work on this script and if it turns out to be good, then we will make a film out of it’.
“So, the writer doesn’t have idea whether the film will be made of his story or not. At the same time, he is getting paid less, so he starts writing for another script. But you cannot write four scripts at the same time,” says Hirani.