Dear All,

Five Point Someone is now a play! Produced by Evam, India’s top theatre company, this play will be rolled out around the country with nine cities covered in the first phase.

My love for theatre (used to do lots of plays in college) and Evam’s passionate team (the founders quit their corporate job offers after their MBA to start Evam) means they have my full support for taking Indian theatre to a new level. Evam’s plays are awesome, and you can ask anyone who has seen them. The FPS adaptation will be a fire cracker.

They are offering early bird tickets on their site. Performances are live, hence limited in number and tickets sell out soon. So, don’t miss this one.

The link with all the details is here.

Regards,

Chetan

Hi All,

Hope you are doing well. My column in TOI today. Would love your thoughts. Link  here.

Love,

Me

One of my good friends, Mr R. Sridhar runs a creativity workshop company called IdeaZrs. Mr Sridhar used to head O&M India earlier, one of India’s top advertising agencies. After a fantastic career there, he set up this firm that tries to unravel creativity and the human mind. As part of that, he took a probing interview with me, asking questions I have never been asked before, and I had to spend a lot of time thinking answers to.

That interview is now available online, and the link is here.

I hope you enjoy it. Apart from the answers, I think the questions may also be inspiration to aspiring journalists who conduct regular interviews.

Love,

Chetan

Dear All,

Once again, thank you so much for your support. Yesterday, I was on CNN-IBN’s Face the Nation, on a general panel discussion on the Education System. However, I used the opportunity to give a few closing remarks from my side on the issue. While we maintain our stance on the issue, me and my fans want to move on, and we have.

The remarks are in the link here. The video is in five parts. My comments are in the 3rd part, so click the link under the screen that says 3. I speak after around a minute.

Thank you very much. I am looking forward to using this blog for other positive topics.

Regards,

Chetan

PS:  This is only for the extra-curious types. While totally not obligated to answer any more allegations, just to clarify on the RH video – no I wasn’t given the script. A top level oral narration is something else and anybody in the film industry will tell you is very different from actually giving the written script. Notice they keep saying he has ‘heard’ the script, not ‘read’ it. In the oral narration, they told me the changes only. Please also note NDA he flashes which has a date of Oct 3, 2007, the so-called narration date. The adaptation deal was done in September 2005. Raju said it took Abhijat ’3 yrs and 2 months’ to do the script in other interviews. Hence, even if Abhijat started on the deal date, the script was finished in November 2008. So, how could RH narrate it to me in Oct 2007?  Go figure. Also, please listen to my  full Bollywood Hungama interview they are quoting from, I maintain that my story is the base. Anyway, what matters is the final film vs book.   Also, they did not buy rights of the book – they bought the rights to adapt the book – a basic error they continue to make – whether out of lack of knowledge or to evade the issue. And yes there is a contract to adapt the work – but it doesn’t mean they can claim authorship of the story. You can buy a painting, not claim you painted it – basic copyright law. My points are valid, and I am not a liar. Anyway, like I said, we’ve moved on.

I just finished my last two interviews with IBN7 and Headlines Today. These were the last interviews I’d give on this issue.  There is no point going back and forth with allegations and assertions, and it only creates drama and no solution. Hence, I’d stick to simple facts, and I’ve even offered a compromise, that they may want to consider.

1. When you are saying ‘based on a novel by’ in a movie, you cannot have a separate original Story credit in the film – not to mention the latter upfront and the former at the end. 3 Idiots has a big front Story credit for Mr Hirani and Mr Joshi. This is just not possible as they are themselves saying the story is based on a novel. The Screenplay, definitely so, belongs to Mr Hirani and Mr. Joshi.

2. While they did fulfill the ‘based on the novel by’ credit as per contract, by claiming the story as original and claiming it as theirs alone, they have definitely negated and denied my due credit. Especially since the film has many commonalties with the book. They’ve adapted my story, not created a new one.  That they’d claim the original story to someone else was never told to me, is not mentioned in the contract and is frankly just not possible under the basic ‘moral rights of the author’ under copyright law.

3. To the extent they have done this, all I merely ask is put my name as one of the writers in the ‘Story’ credit. They can keep their names above me, and make me the third writer of the story. The screenplay is theirs anyway.

4. They don’t have to actually change the prints running in the theatres or incur any costs there. They can change it in the official records and in the DVD/Satellite as possible.

5. This is merely a humble request. The public opinion is already there that the story resembles the book. We don’t have to get into percentages, but if there is a contribution, it should be recognized.

If they do this, me and all FPS readers will be happy. If they don’t, it is their choice.

I don’t really want to talk about anything else in this matter.  I thank you all for your support. I’ve gained a lot of credibility and love, all of us stood up for what we believed in, and I think my country knows who wrote this film’s story now anyway.

I  am aware of the many opinions and statements the makers and Mr Khan have made about me and the kind of person I am, but I don’t have any issues with that. I also thank the media, for bringing the issue out clearly, and helping me present my side in a fair manner.

Love,

Me