Kamal Haasan’s ambitious academic venture, aiming at making screenwriting a specialized field with a week-long workshop, is all set to be launched today, amidst the presence and participation of eminent screenwriters from across the globe.
Being cohosted by IIT Madras along with Kamal Haasan’s Raajkamal Films International, the workshop will be held in the hollowed grounds of IIT. French writer Jean Claude Carriere, Olivier Lorelle (whose film Indigenes was nominated to the Oscars 2006) and Shekhar Kapur, will share their thoughts with the likes of K. Balachander, Balu Mahendra, Gulzar, Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Vishal Bharadwaj, Rituparno Ghosh, Shyamaprasad and Sriram Raghavan at the seminar between June 2 and June 3, 2009.
"I envy the 250 delegates who will get to be there at the ICSR auditorium at IIT to listen to the masters and attend the screenwriting workshop to be conducted by Anjum Rajabali, Atul Tiwari and K.Hariharan," says Kamal Haasan. This seminar will be dedicated to writer Ananthu, K Balachandar’s most trusted writer, said Kamal Haasan.
"Ananthu was the one who got me into writing. Suchitra Film Society would screen films from around the world. Every time films came for festivals, we would hijack the films and watch them," he recalls. "Once I could afford it, I went to the US and spent some time with (John) Truby. He was like my coach. He introduced me to all the tools I needed. Thevar Magan was the first film here to be written with Movie Magic, a screenwriting software." Later in the nineties, he met Luis Bunuel's regular hand Jean Claude Carriere, who went on to become the co-writer for Maruthanayagam. "He then introduced me to Abbas Kiarostami and that was the first time we spoke of mentoring writers and filmmakers. Because not all storytellers make for good screenwriters. Even if Shakespeare was around today, he would have to learn screenwriting. Not to say screenwriting is greater than Shakespeare. It's just that the rules of the game have changed. It took me nearly twenty years to learn what is today taught in film schools. These 250 students we have selected will need just a week to take their first baby step towards writing." The speakers all belong to different schools of cinema. "All the people I have called are people I have learned from even if they are younger than me. Some of them are people I consider mentors. Mr. Balachander has written and produced 100 different films. I wish Mani Ratnam could've come too but he has a film to complete." The workshop is only for selected delegates and the seminar is only by invitation.
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