The Udaan and Jubilee director on the differences between writing a movie and a series, whether he is a better director or writer, and more…
Edited excerpts:
Figuring out the tempo of a film vs series
It’s all about character development. The broad difference is that movies are about plot, and series are about characters. In a series, there is a tendency to create deeper, more defined, better arcs for the characters. It’s not a simple three-act structure, it doesn’t go from plot point to plot point to climax. The characters can be heroes in episode one and a villain by the middle of it and it could extend to multiple seasons. In a series, you ask what your character’s arc is. A story may not move forward in a specific moment but in my mind, at least, the character is learning or understanding or experiencing something that will have a payoff later.
Vikramaditya Motwane – a better writer or director?
A better director. Anurag (Kashyap) constantly tells me to write my own stuff because “you only know your stuff best”. I find writing singularly depressing. I go into this vicious cycle where I write, overthink it, eat more unnecessarily… I don’t smoke anymore — once upon a time I used to constantly smoke while I was writing, and that was worse. Now I’m constantly eating when I’m writing and that makes me even more depressed. Maybe it’s a confidence issue or something else. It’s not a happy place. Finishing a script is, though. I haven’t written an original screenplay in a while. Everything I’ve done after that has been a collaboration — and I’m very good at that. I’m getting back into writing. It’s a time-consuming process. I don’t know how Kurosawa and Bergman used to do it.
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