THE CURIOUS CASE OF MISSING CREDITS
Who wrote the script for Hichki, the new film starring Rani Mukherji? A writer from Australia wants due credit; the director denies any contribution
The trailer of actor Rani Mukerji’s comeback film, Hichki, got a great response following its release on December 19. But immediately afterwards, the filmmakers landed in a controversy — Melbournebased author Nishant Kaushik accused the producers and director Siddharth P Malhotra of not giving him due credit for script contributions.
In a long Twitter rant on December 20, Nishant made statements like “how easy it is to treat writers like trash”. The same day, Siddharth issued a statement, calling the accusations “baseless”.
Reacting to Siddharth’s statement, Nishant tells us, “I have no intention of picking a fight. I only wanted to make a point; I made one. He made one in response, which I disagree with but [won’t] dispute.”
This spat has once again put the spotlight on the question: do writers really get taken for granted, or is it that they just assume their draft would make it to the final cut, without even getting a confirmation for that?
Siddharth tells us, “If Nishant had contributed to even a single scene, why would I have not given him the credit? The film was announced a year ago, so why didn’t he feel the need to get in touch with us then? Can he prove through any e-mail or text message that the script was commissioned to him and that he’d be given the credit?”
The back story is that about two-and-a-half years ago, Nishant was contacted by Siddharth through an agency and asked to submit a draft script on the basis of a very short brief, and he did so. And then, as per his tweets, he never got a response. After watching the trailer, Nishant says, he realised that the storyline had many similarities with his script.
Siddharth says that he has no idea if this agency failed to keep Nishant informed. And Nishant says that living in Australia and with a day job, he didn’t have enough time to follow up on his draft, though in the initial days, he did try to contact the director.
Bollywood names we’ve spoken to about this have varied opinions. Several say that writers deserve better.