After writing scripts such as Nil Batey Sannata and Dangal , where the plot revolved around small town India, writer-director Nitesh Tiwari’s latest offering, Bareilly Ki Barfi , an adaptation of French novel The Ingredients Of Love, is once again set in a small city. He has co-written it with Shreyas Jain.
“I and my co-writer have just borrowed the basic premise from the novel and have recreated an entirely Indian version of our own, with our own set of characters. It is fulfilling to bring alive two important elements which are very crucial in writing. One, the idea needs to appeal. Two, it should have the potential to hold people’s interest for about two hours,” revealed Tiwari in an e-mail interaction ahead of his master-class at the eighth edition of Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.
Showing the reality does not always create a newer representation of the idea of a small city. For him, it is the story that takes him to places. “It is usually the stories that dictate the place where it is best suited to be based. I choose whichever backdrop that can bring out the flavour of the story in the best possible manner,” said Tiwari.
Keeping the milieu intact
Be it Mumbai’s Chillar Party or Haryana’s Dangal , as a writer, he tries to keep the milieu of the place intact through his characters which have emanated from his own experiences and observation. Speaking about the process of writing those nuanced characters, he asserted that films could only win hearts if its characters were believable.
“I like to keep my characters closer to real life. I borrow partly from the traits of people I have met or observed. My experience in advertising comes in pretty handy. Though the format of storytelling changes, the challenges of writing remain the same,” explained Tiwari.
For most of the time, he found it quite useful to be a writer as well as a director as it gave him creative freedom to explore the form. “It is a split personality kind of situation but in a good way. While writing, the director takes a back seat but remains a guiding force and while directing the writer takes a back seat but keeps quality in check,” concluded Tiwari.
