Meiyazhagan (2024) director Prem Kumar recently revealed that his Tamil romantic-drama 96, starring Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha Krishnan, was originally written as a Hindi film and he initially wanted to cast Abhishek Bachchan in it.
In the 2018 film, Vijay and Trisha play Ram and Jaanu, former students from the batch of 1996 who reunite twenty-two years after their graduation. The film revolves around a conversation between these two characters in the course of one night.
Speaking at the 7th edition of the Indian Screenwriters Conference (ISC), Prem said, "96 was originally written for Hindi cinema, and I wanted to pitch it to Abhishek Bachchan, but I didn't have contacts."
He also went on to explain how 96 lent itself to be a Bollywood film and added that he has now finished writing a new Hindi film script.
"I know Hindi very well, and my father grew up in North India so I was constantly exposed to Hindi cinema in my childhood. My favourite actor was Naseeruddin Shah. I have written a script for Hindi now. The main reason for my interest in Hindi cinema is the diversity of the audience and not the scale,” he added.
Prem was speaking in the session titled 'The South Saga - Rooted, Relevant, and Revolutionary', where he was joined by filmmakers Christo Tomy (Ullozhukku, 2024), Hemanth M Rao (Sapta Sagaradaache Ello - Side A & Side B, 2023) and Vivek Athreya (Saripodha Sanivaaram, 2024).
Christo, whose riveting thriller-drama Ullozhukku starring Urvashi and Parvathy Thiruvothu was produced by Ronnie Screwvala, Honey Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey, said he struggled for eight years to make a film with a female lead.
“I don't think I would have gotten this kind of a budget if I had made it with producers from Kerala. In Kerala, when you're trying to make a project with a female star, things get difficult and I would avoid doing it because, for them, stars only mean male leads. In the other aspects of the industry, though, like directing or writing, many female artists are coming up and the environment is getting better," he said.
Hemanth said there is a "huge disparity" between south and north industries, with the ability to "pivot" and take decisions being "largely easier" in the former. "But it doesn't happen like that here (Bollywood). Down south, I can make films that I want to make," he said.
He, however, noted that there is a "huge problem" brewing in the Kannada industry: of writers not being "valued".
"They are seen as an afterthought or as a tool. I think the South is trying to catch up to the way writers are treated in Mumbai. In the Kannada film industry, we do not have a place to register our scripts, so for us, SWA is pan-Indian because there is no other body for us," he added.
Vivek also backed Hemanth and said how a lot of writers have turned into directors because "they do not get their due credit and are not paid properly."
"It is not right on any terms but this is what happens, and so they get into direction even though they don't have the interest to direct," the filmmaker added.
