The Chennai International Screenwriting Workshop, the first of its kind in South India, hosted by Raajkamal Films International in association with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, will kick off with a brief inaugural session on May 28.
The workshop will culminate with a two-day seminar with some of the best screenwriters and filmmakers from around the world.
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.
Kamal Haasan is dedicating the seminar to his dear old friend Ananthu, who first introduced him to world cinema.
"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, Mr. Balu Mahendra and 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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