Why is it that there is a different music director and a different background scorer for the same movie in Bollywood?
First things first. Scoring Background Music (BGM) for a film is a different craft than composing songs because the entire thought process is reversed.
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How important is screenplay formatting? What are the best tools to assist a writer in producing a document in line with the industry standards?
A film script has a big function beyond just the content. It’s a document that is shared with all the technicians and the talent working on the film. It should be formatted so that it’s easy for everyone to make their own notes and remarks on the script. That’s why in a professional set up, formatting becomes very important.
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How did you sell your first screenplay?
My first credited screenplay ‘Mere Yaar Ki Shadi Hai’ (2002) was a commissioned script. My name was proposed by Sanjay Gadhvi, the director of the film, who I had assisted on his first film.
Aditya Chopra, the head at Yashraj Films and one of India’s most successful directors, met me once at the behest of Sanjay Gadhvi and apparently told him immediately after I left : ‘The boy is an asset. Take him.’
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Where does originality comes from? Why are there writers/musicians/filmmakers that are more original than the rest?
Originality lies in application. Art is partly about the idea and partly, about the application. Ideas may not be original (because how many original ideas can there be after all?) but their application can be.
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Why do the producers in Bollywood never face the losses when the movie flops?
Firstly, ‘Bollywood’ is a very big umbrella term, which covers most movies made in Mumbai. So what happens to one kind of movie producer is not necessarily what happens to another movie producer. You must have heard the terms ‘A grade’ ‘B grade’ and ‘C grade’ for movies. These grades are not just about the budget of the movie, they are also about the content, look, starcast and the distribution scale. How the ‘A’ grade industry works is very different from ‘B’ grade and so on.
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