Mumbai, March 15 Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar believes that traditional love stories will soon make a major return to the big screen.
At a special screenwriting workshop session organized by Whistling Woods International in association with the Screenwriters Association of India (SWA), Akhtar was asked what themes aspiring writers should explore.
“I don't work that way, like, ‘Oh, now the industry is looking for this, so let me write this'... But if you look at the past 10 to 15 years, everything gets saturated, everything changes. So, if you look at it cyclically, maybe love stories will come back,” she said.
Love stories like Yash Raj Films' "Saiyaara," starring newcomers Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, Dhanush and Kriti Sanon-starrer "Tere Ishk Mein," and "Ek Deewane ki Deewaniyat" featuring Harshvardhan Rane and Sonam Bajwa, turned out to be box office hits last year.
Akhtar revealed that she is currently working on a couple of projects, both as a director and a producer.
“We are shooting ‘Dahaad 2.’ Reema Kagti is directing that. I'm writing two screenplays for myself. We have finished one screenplay for Reema, and we are currently developing a bunch of scripts with other directors to produce. I have two (films planned), I'm writing them,” she said, without divulging details.
Asked about the sequel to her film "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara", the filmmaker said, "When it happens, I'll announce it."
Sharing insights into her writing process, the filmmaker revealed an interesting anecdote about her debut film, "Luck by Chance" (2009), saying the script took shape in an unusual way. The film featured her actor-director brother, Farhan Akhtar, and Konkona Sen Sharma, and it garnered wide acclaim.
“Earlier, I would write a one-liner for the entire film, like scene one, this happens; scene two, this happens; scene three, this happens, but what I didn't do then was edit before moving to the screenplay.
"I just expanded the one-liner straight into a screenplay, which ended up becoming a 200-to-300-page draft. Today it probably would have been a great series,” she said.
She added that the script was eventually reshaped with the help of her writer-director friend, Reema Kagti.
“At the time, we weren't officially co-writing. She (Kagti) was working on ‘Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.’, while I was doing ‘Luck By Chance’. When she read it, she asked, ‘What are you trying to do? Why are you making a trilogy as your first film?!’ So, we hacked it down, we edited heavily, removed scenes and characters, and condensed the story. She also wrote several scenes.”
Akhtar said her writing process has since evolved.
“Now, I write a one-liner first, then go back and cut it down before I begin the screenplay. Even then things keep changing, but at least it doesn't end up being 300 pages,” she said.
Writers Manisha Korde, Mitesh Shah, lyricist Ginny Diwan, among others attended the workshop.