IN CONVERSATION WITH VASANT NATH
FROM THE FACULTY
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Take us back to the beginning— what sparked your journey into storytelling and screenwriting?
It was preparation for boarding school entrance exams that required me to write daily essays- one in English and one in Hindi- for an entire summer that sparked my interest in storytelling and writing. After that, I just followed my nose: I edited my school ' s weekly magazine, chose to study literature in college and continued to engage with storytelling in various ways. Once I started working in film various opportunities came my way. including shadowing more experienced screenwriters than myself. This was very helpful.
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You’ ve worked across different mediums— from film to series. How has your writing evolved with these formats?
For many years, my focus was feature films. For series, one had to develop the skill of collaborative writing, which can be a very enriching experience but it takes some learning. Series writing entails as many people skills as it does filmmaking and writing skills!
What were the biggest challenges you faced when you first started out, and how did you overcome them?
I would say that the biggest challenge was an opportunity to apply whatever I was learning to actually making films. I overcame this by making my first short film on a tiny budget, pulling every favour I could from people I knew around me. Many friends from school and college who had come to Mumbai were working in the industry. Someone connected me to a cheap camera hire, someone connected me to actors and many of my friends agreed to be my crew.
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