How fast is it to write a film in Nepal? The experience of most screenwriters says, 'There is no time to write a film'. How many films are announced first and then just sit down to write. Or even the date of the film production is fixed by writing. You can listen to amazing stories written in the script at the filming location. How heavy is the weight of the film written in the style of 'Tatai Khaon Jali Maroon'? Shouldn't time be invested in screenwriting?

Bollywood's famous screenwriter Bhavani Iyer, who has written films like 'Black', 'Gujaris', 'Lootera', 'Raazi', 'Sam Bahadur', says that filmmakers should spend time in script writing. Bhavani, who came to Nepal to share her experience and knowledge with 16 screenwriters in the 'Screenplay Writing Workshop' organized by Shiksha Foundation, mentions screenplay as a foundation and holds the view that 'to make a house strong, the foundation must be strong'.

'Writing is the skeleton of a film . This is the foundation. For the house to be strong, the foundation must be strong . If a little time is not spent in building the foundation, the house is sure to collapse . The cement should also be applied well. The story should be written that way. "The screenplay has to be written and rewritten again and again," said Bhavani.

It took 9 years to turn into a movie 'Lutera' written by Bhavani. It took 13 years for 'Kafir'. It didn't take much time to become 'black' and 'raji'. She met the famous director Sanjay Leela Bhansali in December, and the shooting of 'Black' started in March. It took only 1 year to write 'Raazi'. When the writing of 'Raazi' started, the film did not have a producer . After not being a producer, the pressure became less, she spent a year enjoying the freedom of being able to write the story as the writer wanted.  The intervention of the producer in some process of

writing is the same in Bollywood and Nepal. How many producers used to tell Bhawani before they could write a 4/5 page screenplay, 'Khoi, don't let the story read'. Some of them did not even understand the scenes on those pages. But he did not stop interfering, he used to say, 'Let's not keep this scene'. So she wrote the film 'Raazi' starring Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal in the lead role without deciding the producer.

'But if you intervene in this way, the magical moments that can come in the story during the writing will be lost . He told director Meghna Gulzar that if there is interference before writing, the beautiful aspects of the story will be lost. But most of the time if you are clear with the story they will agree with it .' It took 7 years to make 'Sam Bahadur', a script is being worked on until the film is made. 

Bhavani joined the screenwriting workshop through Pravesh Gurung of the Foundation. Pravesh Gurung is his best friend. Worked together in 'Gujaris'.

'I've known him since writing Black . The workshop was conducted by the Shiksha Foundation established by Pravesh's family. I didn't have to think twice to come to the workshop. I prefer to interact with film students . Love meeting contemporary writers . This time it is time to come,' said Bhawani, who was found in the courtyard of Kathmandu.  Bhawani has given classes in many such workshops on

film writing. Gave many 'masterclasses'. He knows that this kind of workshop and the learning within it produces a great writer . They have no professional pressure. They are pure story tellers at that time. In such a situation, the teacher who is teaching them will also get a chance to learn from the students. He was attracted by the workshop titled 'Go Tell It on the Mountain'.

'I am not a trained writer myself . How often do trained writers come to such workshops . So I am also nervous . At the end of the workshop, the participating screenwriters will not prepare a ready-made script of the story under construction, but how to tell the story of the film? Focuses on the topic . The aim is how to tell the stories of South Asia," she said, "How to tell our South Asian films than Hollywood, European and British films? It is about how to cover our separation, the nuances of our culture in writing.'  She is hopeful that the screenwriter participating in

will tell the original story of Nepali society. 'No one can tell the story of the society and world you grew up in the way you can. This is what the writer should make his heart, and write with the same aspect in writing,' Bhavani said, 'The more local the story becomes, the more global it is. The feeling of Nepali father and son is also the story of Swedish father and son. She is of the opinion that the same aspect should be kept in the story that will be accepted by the world audience .

'We had to first make a film that we like to tell, not the story they want to catch the eye of the West. And they accept that story, "she stumbles". In Nepal, there are 'art house' films that make films with foreign 'funds'. After the foreign investment, how many times the initiator has to agree on how many things. How to preserve the originality in this situation ? Bhavani says that it is difficult to preserve originality. She says, 'The most difficult thing is to preserve the originality . But don't compromise on what you say, if you've written a story, you have the right to decide how it should be.' 

Bhavani's debut scripted 'Black' completes 20 years . Before writing films, she used to do journalism . Journalism taught writing discipline. Also taught to cover factual content in limited time . She didn't even get that much time for writing in the limited time, she had to submit the news on 'Deadline'. At that time, Bhavani felt, 'I am not a good journalist'. The journalist had to be fast and smart, everything had to be understood . However, she could imagine stories. So she turned to writing. And she wrote her first film, 'Black' - a beautiful story of a teacher and a student.

Bhavani initially thought of making a biopic of Helen Keller along with Sanjay Leela Bhansali. However, they did not get the rights for the film. Helen's teacher Annie Suvlen was a woman . She thought of writing the film by making the character called Suvalen a man. Isn't the male-female relationship interesting when the character who is learning from the teacher is teaching the teacher? Holding that side, she wrote 'Black'.

'My writing journey started from Black . Until then, I had not thought about the story of the film. But, gradually I came to write . A film was made based on a story written 9 years ago, written 13 years ago. The writing journey became very strange and interesting. I enjoyed this journey. I didn't plan anything, but the journey progressed through one film after another,' recalls the 20-year writing journey.

In two decades of film writing, Bhawani has experienced a gradual change in her craft . She kept writing. He says that while writing continuously, experiences through crafting have strengthened his writing.

'Life experiences also made me measure the depth of the story I tell . I was very young when I wrote the film . He had less experience in life. I grew up in a good family. I didn't know much about the outside world, I didn't know the struggle . But with time, I got experiences of pain, sorrow, and loss. That experience came to be seen in writing,' says Bhavani. While writing the film, Bhavani found and saw her own separate world in writing.

Bhawani says, 'After writing one film, what will you write next? I threw myself into writing without hesitation. The story came to the fore, the character came to the fore. He came to say that in his own way, I thought that I should do the story telling. 

The women of 'Lootera' and 'Raazi'

Bhavani never thought of writing a female-led film . However, she was conscious about the female character of the film she wrote. In most Bollywood films, female characters were written as supporting characters, who only help the hero. However, female characters have their own destination, they travel . They have their own dreams and needs.

Holding this aspect, she wrote a female character in every film . 'I never thought my voice was inferior to a man's. That's why I didn't make every female character just a supporting character,' Bhavani sounded mature. Until writing 'Black', she was sensitive about female characters . She felt that the story should be based on women, so she wrote accordingly. But while watching the movies, the knowledge that it is important to hear women's voices increased in them .

Most of the women in Bollywood used to stick to item songs. Films based on women's stories used to end with 'item song'. 'Hola women can shake their hips . But after realizing that they are not limited to that, I started writing women as realistic characters. If there is an opportunity to have more characters in the film, I will write female characters as much as men. I write 5 male and 6 female characters," she said, "I have never written female characters badly. I wrote such characters that women have dreams, education, feelings and such a story should be seen' .  Pakhi (Meenakshi Sinha) character of

'Lutera' is also not weak . This is Bhawani's third film. First the name of the film was 'The Last Leaf'. Bhavani finds a lot of herself in Pakhi character . Pakhi was a writer, a character struggling with asthma. Bhavani also had to fight with asthma .

'I knew that Pakhi's character should be written with the necessary depth and finesse,' she remembers while writing the character. While making this film, I had to disagree with director Vikramaditya Motwani on many things. Vikram once thought of converting the film into an action genre . So it took 9 years to make this film. 

While writing 'Raazi', he wanted to tell a story without exaggerating the 'Indo-Pak' relationship. India and Pakistan were not presented as enemies of each other. She was clear that whatever the character of Pakistan does for her country, the character of India is doing it for the country.

Both the characters were honest towards the country, they were trying to inherit the legacy that their father held. However, does a woman's feelings decrease with the patriotism shown by some men towards their country? The value of honesty shown by him is also the same, Raji wrote with this aspect. "Showing enmity between two countries is a stupid thing." Maybe there was a division at some point. That does not mean that two things are enemies,' she said.

Based on the book (including Calling), this film was written, its story was more inclined towards female character . However, Bhavani thought that both the characters would be equally true and accurate in the film. It was not expected that 'Raazi' would do well at the box office. The film was released during IPL . There were no big male stars in the film . But at that time, a funny incident happened - we made everyone Muslim in the movie. He came across things like 'If only one man had been made a Hindu'. The audience watched the story without looking at those aspects.  The question of not giving proper remuneration to