‘Writing for cinema is more constrained than writing a novel’
Radhika Bhirani
As a writer who has contributed to books, films and the web space, Kanika Dhillon has her perspective in place about the fluidity and freedom these mediums offer. She opines that the medium where the audience will finally consume the story will drive the style of narrative.
“When I write my books, it’s just about me and my readers. There’s no interpretation and no director. So, it’s very fulfilling. There’s a lot of freedom in authoring a book — you can take as much time as you want, put whatever thought you want and colour the canvas the way you want,” says the author of books such as Bombay Duck is a Fish, Shiva and the Rise of the Shadows and The Dance of Durga.
Screenplay writing, on the other hand, is more of a team effort. She explains, “It’s like all of us are trying to combine our visions and arrive at a bigger story on a bigger canvas. The vision board continues to change based on the director and actors’ interpretation and sensibility, and so you have to be prepared to write accordingly.”
After working on the screenplay for films such as Ra.One (2011), Manmarziyaan, Kedarnath (both 2018) and Judgementall Hai Kya (2019), the writer has now penned a web film, and calls the digital world “a unique ballgame” altogether.
“It’s more focus viewing, and so, you can explore things that you’ll not while you’re writing for a film, because it’s for community viewing and you try to tone things down. And you will find an audience for all kinds of storytelling, so that’s also very liberating,” she avers.
Overall, Kanika believes that “it’s more constrained to write for cinema than it is for writing a novel as an experience. “But both have their gratification,” she continues, “When I see my stories come alive on the big screen, it’s a very different kind of a high.”
What makes it more exhilarating, Kanika explains, is to see those narratives and characters “come out of the screen and enter into people’s drawing rooms” — something that happened with Rumi of Manmarziyaan and Bobby of Judgementall Hai Kya. “They start a discussion and transcend even the medium. That can only happen with cinema. And I just love that,” Dhillon sums up.