Over the last few years, there has been a whole narrative building around the significance of script, how it is the backbone of a film, screenwriter Juhi Chaturvedi tells me on a call from Lucknow. That is where her latest creation, Gulabo Sitabo, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana, is taking shape in the hands of director Shoojit Sircar. “If we are getting into a space where the most important work on a film is being done by women, then it makes me very hopeful and happy inside,” says Chaturvedi, who moved to films from the world of advertising and has an enviable set of films like Vicky Donor, Piku and October behind her.
Let’s accept and put aside some truisms first. That there has been a great under-representation of women writers in Bollywood. Like several other fields, the world of stories has also been populated predominantly by men. Then, let’s also consider the fact that like any other field, screenwriting is being assailed, claimed and conquered by women.
Not just Gulabo Sitabo, one of the most anticipated films ahead, Meghna Gulzar’s Chhapaak, based on the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal starring Deepika Padukone, has been co-written by Atika Chohan. The end of this month will find Prakash Kovelamudi’s Judgementall Hai Kya written by author-screenwriter Kanika Dhillon in theatres. In the last one year, we’ve had Raazi, Gully Boy, Manmarziyaan, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga, October, Andhadhun, Mukkabaaz, Badhaai Ho, Kalank and Veere Di Wedding with women featuring in the writing credits.
On the flip side, however, is a sobering fact. That the biggest Bollywood hit of the year so far, Kabir Singh , has been by a man, of a man and for men — though women are also known to have been very receptive towards it. Meanwhile, the ghosts of #MeToo are still looming large in the industry.
- While women may not have found justice in the Bollywood #MeToo cases, it took a village to rehabilitate the accused men, says Chohan, who saw things at close quarters as the joint secretary and Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) member of the Screen Writers Association (SWA). But she is not disheartened and feels there’s been a larger shift in thinking in its aftermath. “There is a sense of hygiene. People are double-checking themselves. It is bringing in a sense of etiquette to the industry where earlier there was none. There is a visible shift in gender balance. Maybe it’s corrective and conscious, maybe it’s tokenism. But tokenism is better than tone-deafism,” she says.
So now what? In the midst of popular representation of misogyny, how do women writers negotiate their rightful space? What has changed? And where do we go from here?
New points of view
Getting a foot in is not just about basking in the glory and recognition, more work and the money that rightfully comes along with it. For most, it’s about introspecting at large about the present and gauging the road ahead.
The consensus is that whatever may be the predominant narrative, the presence of women writers has led to an increasing diversity of voices and points of view, and also ‘tangible, nuanced characters and lived experiences”, as Gazal Dhaliwal, writer of Lipstick Under My Burkha, Qarib Qarib Singlle and Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga puts it. “As in all things, the more the representation, the better the presentation. In this case, the presentation of a world and a story and characters from the female point of view... The same could be said for all the under-represented — the queer voices, the regional voices, etc,” says Shibani Bathija, writer of My Name Is Khan, Fanaa and the recent Kalank .
For Dhaliwal, the most significant is the emergence of the female gaze. “Our blockbusters are all about seeing through the male gaze. Gully Boy was about experiencing a male character as a woman sees him. You get to see a side of him that you usually don’t get to see. There is a degree of sensitivity and self-awareness to the manliness,” she says.
The thinking and writing process itself is, however, perceived as “gender neutral” by most of the women practitioners. “The craft is not gender determined,” says Chohan, who entered the industry after a stint in journalism and at the Film and Television Institute of India, with Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! as her benchmark and its creators Dibakar Banerjee and Urmi Juvekar as her heroes.
“It’s a myth that women cannot write action or thrillers or men can’t write sensitive or complex female characters. If you have to slot the gender of the writer to a piece of writing, then it should be androgynous,” says Dhillon, who has written Ra-One, Manmarziyaan and Kedarnath .
Chaturvedi agrees. “It has nothing to do with being a woman... Vicky Donor wouldn’t have been my film then ideally,” she says. But she admits thinking her female characters through — carefully and consciously. “They may not be heroic... but I feel my women can’t be regressive, submissive or tolerant,” she adds.
Impending course correction?
Chohan is perturbed about the “burden of feminism”. “We are attuned to a certain kind of female narrative... I’m often approached as the item girl of radical feminist dramas,” she says. A pigeon-hole she resists. “Why doesn’t it apply to men? It has to be the responsibility of both genders. Everybody needs to understand feminism,” she says.
According to Bathija, women are as capable as men in propagating age-old gender biases, sexism and misogyny. “ Dum Laga Ke Haisha has one of the finest female protagonists I’ve seen and that was written by a man. And when all the elements come together, then we get Gully Boy — with a female producer, director and writer(s), creating a distinct, memorable female hero who doesn’t even need screen time to mark her strong, unique point of view. Lo and behold, the female lead tells the hero to go live his dream because she will bring home the bacon, or mutton in this case,” she says.
- Dhaliwal: He stalks her, owns her. She still falls in love with him. She doesn’t ask him to back off. That’s not OK with me. No woman writer would’ve written it like that. Whatever a character, it’s important to understand his/her motive. There is no explanation here. You are free to write whatever character you want. Just think why he is that way. It helps connect better.
- Chohan: Misogyny exists; you can’t discount it. It is deeply embedded even in romance and there is a need to chronicle it in a visceral, raw way. But here the female narrative gets relegated to the background. What about her journey? She is equally transformed in response. The story belongs to her too, but it [the storytelling] doesn’t respond from a place of equality.
The “gender” responsibility thrust on women could be because things have traditionally tilted the wrong way — both when it comes to their presence and representation. “A few years of drastic correction will make it veer towards the centre,” hopes Chohan. “It’s like being starved of carbohydrates, so you jump at carbs for a balanced diet,” says Dhaliwal. For her, the ideal would be “when both men and women tell stories of both men and women with equal love and nuance”. Having gone through a “transition” experience, she is in a unique space of equality and empathy. “I lived in a boy’s hostel for four years of engineering. I’ve seen men closely, how they talk about women, with each other. They are wonderful as much as obnoxious,” she says.
On a different note, Chohan resents the undue expectation of “quality” from women; that they should outdo and outshine their male counterparts. “Just because a film has been written by a woman, why is it not allowed mediocrity? Why do women have to be geniuses? Why are we not allowed our flaws?” she wonders. If it’s a woman professional, there are expectations of efficiency and punctuality. “Why can’t I bring in my brokenness, woundedness and inner mess?” she asks.
A still from 'Raazi'.
Success is key, not gender
The comfort level for women writers has increased, what with many more women in the industry, specially directors. Also, though producers tend to inherently trust male writers more, in terms of sheer economics, a lot of bigger projects are getting entrusted to women. Raazi changed the rules of the game last year. Dhillon would like to see it in a broader frame. According to her, irrespective of gender, your influence and remuneration is directly proportionate to your film’s success. “If you are delivering on certain parameters, regardless of your gender, you will get paid,” she says.
Meanwhile, for now, beyond the debate, the writers are busy at work. Dhillon has a romantic thriller going on floors next, which will be produced by Colour Yellow films and Anand L Rai. Dhaliwal is writing a web series for RSVP Movies. Apart from Chhapaak , Chohan is working on two more exciting projects. She and Dhillon are collaborating on Ruchi Narain’s Guilty being made by Dharmatic Entertainment for Netflix. She is also working with Kanu Behl on his Agra, her first with a male director who she calls “feminist by default”. “He has been looking at feminism through a male narrative, a narrative of patriarchy,” she says. Ultimately, be it men or women, the writers, for her, are fighters in the making: “Five years from now, we will be very powerful. It will all explode in the next two years.” Till then, as Dhillon says, “it’s back to the drawing board, cooking up new stories”.
