view in one page and print
We are pleased to publish interview with Mr. Varun Grover, who is creating buzz in Film and TV industry by his unique style of writing scripts.
After passing out from IT-BHU in 2003, Varun worked for short time with a software company (Kanbay Software Solutions, now CapGemini, in Pune). With urge to work in a different field in a creative way, he came to Bombay, developed some contacts with Bombay’s glamorous film industry and started accepting assignments for script writing. He has written scripts (sometimes as co-writer) for several films, including children’s films and for TV serials. He has also produced and directed a 30-minute documentary film “Towers of Mumbai” about Bombay’s human pyramid event celebrating Dahi-Handi on Krishna Janmastami.
Yogesh K. Upadhyaya from Chronicle interviews him for his non-technical but interesting career in glamour media:
(Varun Grover)
His biography is attached here
Varun2009.pdf
Q-1: Welcome, Varun. Please introduce yourself to our readers.
First of all, it's a privilege being featured in the alumni magazine. IT-BHU has been the biggest influence in my life, and to share the lead-up to and the by-products of those four years is a bit of a surreal experience. I did my schooling from Dehradun (up to class 5th) and Lucknow (rest of it), as a standard-format middle-class Kendriya Vidyalaya kid. This explains my choice of Maths-Science after class X and the choice of IIT-JEE after 12th. Thankfully, a lower rank and no charm of M.Sc. from IITs helped me land at IT-BHU (Civil Engineering).
Q-2: Why did you decide to jump into script writing profession?
Soon after joining the 'software job' at Kanbay in Pune (in 2003), I realized I am not at all cut-out for a code-decode-uncode job. I already had plans of shifting to writing (journalism, ad agency, TV or films) and started saving money, thinking I will quit in 2 years. But 6-months into the job and I realized two things – one, I can't wait for two years. And two – it will get more difficult to quit as time passes...a kind of fear of Stockholm-syndrome, me falling in love or submission with my abductor.
But with no friends, contacts or even basic idea about how the TV or film industry worked, it would have been stupid to quit. And stupidity worked, of course after a struggle of one year. For the first year, I mainly did ghost writing (i.e. writing for other people with no credits and very little or no money) and kept on networking. The first big break came in the form of 'The Great Indian Comedy Show' in 2005 – a niche satire-based show with one of the best creative teams Indian TV has gathered in the last 15-years or so. (It had Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Shekhar Suman and a creative team that later created gems like 'Dasvidaniya', and recently 'Quick gun Murugan')
Q-3: Please tell us more about script writing.
Script-writing is in simple terms, taking the germ of an idea to the written form of expression where it's ready to be translated on to the visual medium. So unlike a short-story or novel form, a script for TV or film will always be crisper, technically detailed (location, mood, setting etc.) and written in a standard format. There is a very simple flow-chart for the whole process. Idea → Short story → Step Outline (Plot Points with Event flow) → Screenplay (Scene break-up with content details of each scene described) → Final Dialogue Script (adding specialized dialect touches to the screenplay).
It is not difficult to find people specializing in a few of these different areas of expertise. Ideally a person should be able to develop a screenplay as well as write the dialogue, but sometimes people choose to focus on only one of these areas. And of course, all this work is generally done in collaboration with the Director of the film (or TV show), with generous interference by the Producer. Most of the TV shows I did (like The Great Indian Comedy Show and now 'Jay Hind'), were content-driven non-fiction shows and hence solely my creation with little interference from Director or Producer.
Writing is not a very high-paying job but as one gains more experience, the fees too gains some logic and respectability. The current rates for a 30-minute episode of a TV show are anywhere between Rs. 20,000 to 30,000 for screenplay and dialogue. For a small-budget film, say less than 3-Crore film, a writer may get close to 4 Lakhs for the entire project (which generally ends in 3-months). The only sore-point - film and TV industry are highly disorganized and payment schedules are generally hay-wire, sometimes ending in heart-burns and legal fights.
Q-4: Your advice to people planning to make career in film & TV industry as a script writer?
First of all – don't shift (or quit your job) if you are looking for glamour, big money or fame. All of these three are mostly illusions and come only as a bonus, sometimes as a curse too. Script-writing, of all, is a very lonely profession. So, if you love your own company, if writing ANY kind of stuff gives you a kick and sense of completion in your life, and if it doesn't matter to you what happens with your script once it's written, then and only then make a move.
I won't say luck matters in film industry (as many would like to believe or propound), but persistence matters. So persist till you get lucky, is a better way to put it. Contacts matter a lot, and with right contacts one can get the best support for his/her ideas. The field is very competitive, but in a very surreal way. As I said, writer's world is lonely and just like an actor's narcissism; a writer has to be in love with his/her writing. So much so that any one paying him/her to write is always a bonus, no matter how much is paid and by who and what is being done to the script after it's paid for.
Q-5: Please describe your college days
I basically did a part-time Engineering and full-time extra-curricular at IT-BHU, with due apologies to my good Professors at Civil Engineering (though I must add, my final grade was above 8). Thanks to the ever-bustling notice boards in our hostels, I soon realized that this place has all the options in the world. Initially for few months, I was really surprised to see that the telephone-area at the hostel entrance was always full of new posters, notices, and calls for various kinds of activities.
I chose to be a part of Theatre Club and our lovely magazine 'Reverberations'. In Theatre Club, dedicated people like Vivek Roy (Electronics 2002), Abhishek Chandra (Electrical 2002), Animesh Hazra (Ceramic 2002), Nishant Verma (Chemical 2002), and Pradeep Singh (Metallurgy 2001) were really helpful in showing me the way. While in 'Reverberations', I was lucky to be able to work with Kundan Kumar Lucky (CSE 2001) and Saurabh Chandra (Mechanical 2001). During those four years (1999-2003), I got to write and co-direct (for our theatre group GAP, with Animesh Pathak and Pranay Arya being A and P of GAP- both CSE 2003) many skits and plays. Thanks to Prof. S. K. Sharma, (Mechanical Engineering) and Prof. A. K. Mukherjee (Chemistry), we never fell short of encouragement or infrastructure.
I also edited the final two issues of the college magazine 'Reverberations'. Unfortunately (I blame it on the batches that followed) the magazine was shut down. I feel that a college which lacks its own magazine lacks its own voice. I digress, so coming back to the question: college days were as fun as they are for any generation which respects its time, place, and resources while making the cultural history every moment.
And being in a city like Banaras was like the rabri-on-top. A city so rich culturally, and what amazing food, spiritually, and still hiding little secrets for crazy travelers – it was a blessing to be studying there.
I remember that once just before we were to leave home for Holi (after playing a messy Holi in Raman Hostel) few of us went out to have some sweets at Lanka. But then we started craving for Rosogullas of Kshir Sagar so we extended the trip. At Kshir-Sagar we felt like having Gulab Jamuns of Gaudoliya, so went ahead. Upon reaching there, we felt like going to Neechi Baag (at the other end of Chowk) for some chaat at 'Kesari Chaat Bhandaar'. And all this while, we were in Baniyaan and Bermudas, with rubber chappals!
Q-6: Please tell us about your personal life
There is not much to share except that I still feel very nostalgic and depressed about the days spent at IT-BHU and Banaras. No matter what I achieve and no matter what life has in store for me, those four years will remain the greatest treasure; a treasure lost or may have been placed in recovery-package of brain. But may be nostalgia is the greatest tool of a writer, and in a way it's my need too, to keep the image alive.
Varun, it was nice talking to you.
Thanks Yogesh ji! It was great talking to you. And thanks for the persistent efforts our alumni group is making for the IIT conversion. Hope we achieve it soon!
Varun Grover can be contacted at: varun.grover26@gmail.com
______________________________
Professional Experience of Varun Grover
As a script-writer
Films
* Mahayodhha Rama (Releasing in 2009), Produced by Contiloe Pictures and Pixion. Starring Kunal Kapoor, Sameera Reddy, Gulshan Grover.
* Accident at Hill Road (Releasing in 2009), Produced by Magna Films, starring Farooque Sheikh, Celina Jaitley, Abhimanyu Singh.
* Zor Laga Ke Haiyya (Released in June 2009), Produced by Gemini Films. Starring Mithun Chakrabarty, Mahesh Manjerekar, Riya Sen, Seema Biswas.
* Ghoom – a spoof of ‘Dhoom’ (Released in 2007), Produced by MTV. Starring Sumit Raghavan, Purbi Joshi, Gaurav Kapoor.
TV
* Oye It’s Friday with Farhan Akhtar, (2008-2009) on NDTV Imagine.
* Still Moving Still Shaking with Shekhar Suman. (2008), on NDTV Imagine.
* Ranvir, Vinay aur Kaun, (2007-2008) on Star One.
* Aisi ki Taisi with Raju Srivastava, (2007) on Aaj Tak News Channel.
* The Great Indian Comedy Show (2005-2007), on Star One.
* Dus Ka Dum (Season 1) (2008), with Salman Khan on Sony.
* Big Boss (Season 1) (2007), with Arshad Warsi on Sony.
As a literary writer
Journals
* Chakmak, Baal Vigyaan Patrika, (2008-present) published from Bhopal.
* Pratilipi, Bilingual Literary Journal, (2008-present) published from Jaipur.
As a film-maker
* Towers of Mumbai – a documentary on the streets. (2008)
As a blogger
_____________________________________________________________________________
* Zor Laga Ke Haiyya- a children’s film (story co-authored by Varun Grover)
“Bachhon ki film? Who cares” A review of the film written by Varun on Passion For Cinema.com
http://passionforcinema.com/bachhon-ki-film-who-cares/
* Jai Hind- a late night show on Internet - written by Varun (started August 15, 2009)
http://www.youtube.com/user/jayhindtv
Micro Site: http://jayhind.buzzintown.com/
____________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Leave a comment
(if you having troubles, try posting your comment on this page or send an email to chronicle @ itbhuglobal.org)Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP
A wonderful and inspiring interview. Varun forgot to mention how helpful he was to ALL the theatre groups at ITBHU. :-)
September 17, 2009 9:23 AM