Found in Transition

Abbas Tyrewala is in Delhi, basking in the success of Jaane Tu.. Ya Jaane Naa

It was the thought of a hero on a horse that got Abbas Tyrewala to make his directorial debut Jaane Tu.. Ya Jaane Na. “I wanted my lead actor on a horse, it’s been ages since there’s been one in a Bollywood film. This I knew was going to be the penultimate scene. So I began to trace the story backwards from that point,” says Tyrewala. The movie that has used every single filmi cliché has become the year’s peppy hit and the soundtrack by A R Rahman is ruling the airwaves. Accuse him of serving you old wine in a new bottle and Tyrewala laughs merrily. “That was the idea in the first place. To use every cliché there is and give it fresh treatment. What’s better, it seems to have worked,” smiles Tyrewala who candidly acknowledges that the success of the film is more than he ever imagined.


At Osians Cine Fan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, Tyrewala has provided many an entertaining afternoon as he has held discussions on scriptwriting and cinema. As one of Bollywood’s young and innovative scriptwriters, Tyrewala is now positively certain that he doesn’t want to write another film for anybody else. “It took me so long to make my first film and the transition has been important. The biggest transition was in terms of people. Scriptwriting is a lonely process, there’s nobody to deal with but yourself and the characters and situations that you create,” says Tyrewala who believes that making the film helped him trust people again. “It’s team work and as a director your vision of the film has to guide the entire cast and crew. It’s an attractive and powerful position to be in, it’s tough, but the money’s good,” chuckles Tyrewala.

But scriptwriting still remains his first love and Tyrewala is now happy to see the advent of more and more writer-directors in the industry. As a writer, he says, the biggest heartbreak is when the best scripts or stories don’t get made. “The industry is not organised enough for a script to make a comeback, after a producer backs out from the project. Writer-directors will have more control over their projects now,” he says.

As for sprinkling more magic from the 70s and 80s in his future films, Tyrewala admits that he’d love to remake films from the era. “I’d love to remake Waqt and Andaaz. Give it a twist, a whole new interpretation. There’s nothing wrong with that because some of our best movies came from the 70s,” says Tyrewala who’s currently working on scripting his next film, what he calls a naughty adult comedy. “I will be raising the age bracket of my audience to 28 and 30-year-olds. I want to tell people that when the heart breaks, it breaks seriously,” says Tyrewala. Well, we’ll take his word for it.

Courtesy:expressindia.com