February 12, 2012 Y. Sunitha Chowdhary
"The treatment is what sells your story idea, there is no particular definition for it as such, sometimes you like to listen to a narration sometime you don't and that depends on your capacity to engage the listener," says writer Satyanand who is also known for giving impressive screenplays to movies.
He has written for around four hundred films and more, some are dialogues, some screenplay, some stories. For some films he teamed with Jandhyala, he made his debut in 1975 during the making of Jyothi. Ask him if screenplay consultants are necessary and he reacts with clarity, "There have been films like Mayabazar or Malliswari and they all happened without consultants, the director handled it on his own but if people are talking of consultants these days then there must be a necessity.
One should sculpt the script then only it becomes a story, the process of narrating it is screenplay. There is no prerequisite to writing one, like grammar or rules, it keeps changing..there is reverse screenplay sometimes."
Satyanand avers that it becomes a task when there is more than one story or track in the film. "We got to think carefully when there are parallel stories, we can't ignore one for another, otherwise one line dominates the other and the one which is dominated becomes weak. There should be a proper balance, it is difficult to join three or four lines than a single line.
A director who knows what a screenplay is very important for a screenplay writer. If you play tennis it always helps to have a partner who knows something about that game..it works out better if each of them have some knowledge about it."
Has there been occasions where the stories have been good but the movies flopped due to a bad screenplay? "It is like being a self sufficient woman without a husband (Anni undi aidhothanam ledhu)," avers Satyanand. He feels that if the story is good and there are glitches in the screenplay..movie goes for a toss but on the other hand if the story is not impressive but if the screenplay is very good there is a chance that you could engage people.
"I had written the story of Subhash Chandra Bose but there have been a few more hands in the making of the screenplay and I wasn't happy. The movie flopped. Similarly Mahesh's Vamsi was good but again something wrong went with the screenplay, the result was a dud again."
The writers says that since they watch a lot of films they don't need to wait for the release to predict it's outcome. Even while the film is on the sets or while in the post-production stage or director will know where the film is heading towards.
"Though we know it won't work out we won't talk about the span of the film. We might not predict if the film is going to be a good one but we can easily tell that it will not run at the BO. We do get offers that we seldom like but if we start discriminating, then everyone would be jobless. We have a choice, either we stop writing or in the given limitations think about about adding value and giving it the best shot.
If you ask me to point out a film that has a best screenplay, I find it difficult to judge as I see a film in it's entirety..all the things are part and parcel of a film, we like a film at one particular point of time. Gopalrao Gari Ammayi is something that I liked and enjoyed..the screenplay was open..the audience enjoyed watching it."
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