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SCRIPTS TO WATCH OUT FOR IN 2018
NIDHI MEHRA AND MEHUL SURI VEERE DI WEDDING
Delhi-based Nidhi Mehra and Mehul Suri know their maiden film will largely be dubbed a chick flick but Mehra says it’s a film about friendship. “A lot of women-centric movies tend to be about issues or a catastrophe they face which are, of course, needed but we wanted a film which is normal for once,” says Mehra, a former advertising professional. Inspired by her own close-knit gang of friends, Veere Di Wedding follows a quartet that reunites for the wedding of one member (Kareena Kapoor Khan).
Newcomers to the industry, they were put in touch with filmmaker Shashanka Ghosh. Impressed by their work, producer Rhea Kapoor has also acquired the rights of the first project they wrote together, Saat Hindustani, a film on Indians studying abroad.
Writing with Suri, her husband’s best friend, Mehra says she was alerted if it became “too girly”. They didn’t want the film to be one where “guys shouldn’t want to go kill themselves” after seeing it.
AKARSH KHURANA AND ADHIR BHAT KARWAAN
Ronnie Screwvala’s new banner RSVP’s second production is not Akarsh Khurana’s first screenplay credit. Khurana has delivered both superhits (Krrish and Krrish 3) and duds (Kites and Humshakals). But Karwaan, he says, is his most personal and “fiercely independent attempt at finding my voice”. The film was written four years ago in collaboration with fellow theatrewallah Adhir Bhat. It’s about a bitter young man who embarks on a trip with a “bizarre purpose” along with his friend. Starring Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salman (in his Hindi cinema debut) and Mithila Palkar, the dialogues are by Hussain Dalal, who like Khurana and Bhat also has experience in theatre. “In theatre, there is instant gratification and you know right then whether it is working or not,” says Khurana who makes plays for the banner Akvarious. “Because its reach is small, one needs to stay constantly relevant to survive and this fight for immediate relevance translates to remaining fresh and contemporary.”
HUSSAIN DALAL AND ATUL MANJREKAR FANNEY KHAN
After writing dialogues for many films, including Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, Dalal gets his first screenplay credit alongside Manjrekar, who also directs the film starring Anil Kapoor as a struggling parent who goes to extreme lengths to ensure that his young daughter has a successful music career. Also starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Rajkummar Rao and Divya Dutta, the film is an adaptation of Oscar-nominated Belgian film Everybody’s Famous.