“For me, life revolves around my characters and possibly what ‘old-fashioned’ writers call ‘the subject’. I don’t understand genres; I don’t understand commercials. People and the environment around them inspire me to write ,” says Jaideep Sahni. A writer, a lyricist, an ex-adman and an ex-techie who could still fix an errant printer — Jaideep lives in his own realm as an introvert. “I come out occasionally to speak during film promotions and mainly to gel with my subjects, but beyond that it’s quite lonely as a writer,” says the man behind Company , Khosla Ka Ghosla , Chak De! India and now Shuddh Desi Romance (releasing on September 6).
“People think that I write on the underworld, sports persons, small-town India, sales persons, Delhi’s middle-class — but mercifully, each of my films has been distinctly different from the other. For me, each subject was an environment to be absorbed. It’s a very enriching experience,” he says, as he talks of his latest Yash Raj film starring Sushant Singh Rajput, Parineeti Chopra and newcomer Vaani Kapoor.
Shuddh Desi Romance (SDR) deals with a live-in couple in Jaipur, who experience a roller-coaster ride of emotions between attraction and commitment. Jaideep says a story like this needs to be told in a society where we stifle emotions in the guise of morality. “Shuddh in the title doesn’t stand for pure or moralistic; the title translates into ‘romance, just as it is’. I think in India we suffocate people by our moralistic views.”
On his script recce to Jaipur for SDR, the writer says that it is nothing new. “I do it for every single film of mine. Which is why, I think I end up taking two to three years for some of them! I have had only seven or eight films in the last 13 years. That’s a bad average really. The reason is that I want to absorb everything regarding my subject and weave it into my script. Possibly, it doesn’t mean much to the viewer, but to me it means a lot. I go to every place I write on, eating and breathing in the culture. I love taking a rickshaw through the bylanes and drinking hot tea with the local people,” says Jaideep.
This man had decided to quit writing for films after he was disillusioned by the accolades his Company received. “It was all good, but I had come with the idea of writing something fresh and unique, and the success of Company got me hassled, because everyone wanted me to repeat myself. I gave myself only one more film before I would quit.” That film turned out to be Khosla Ka Ghosla (KKG), a sort of game-changer in the industry. “I even took on the role of creative producer of KKG, because we could find no one else. When that film went into hibernation for two and a half years because no one was ready to give it a release, I thought I was right regarding my decision to quit.” Mercifully, destiny had different plans. “Now writers have a much better deal. Though I think working conditions can be much better. How many good writers are around? Filmmakers can’t suddenly expect a flood of writers. They’ve taken 20 years to systematically destroy the tribe. Even today, I know my producer (Aditya Chopra) will take me seriously and give me due credit because he is also a writer at heart. But there are those who do and those who don’t.”
Jaideep says that he believes that everyone has a tale to tell. “Remember how the old folks used to say, ‘We Indians just cross our legs, sit down and need an audience to start a story.’ I am like that.”
