Sunday Debate: Being true to fiction

“There’s 25 per cent fiction in every script”

By Shree Narayan Singh

The fictionalisation of a film based on a true story depends on the content. Sometimes filmmakers want to keep it as real as possible. Sometimes there are things that cannot be shown and thus the story needs to be tweaked while keeping the gist intact. I think every such script has at least 20 to 30 per cent fictionalisation. It’s almost always done to make the scene look larger than life.

With Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017), we kept the core of the story intact – the story of the couple and their struggle while being in love and the fact that the reason behind the struggle was a toilet. Then we added elements to scale it up. The other angles in the film were fictionalised and we made sure these angles did not stray from the main point of the film.

Fictionalising is like improvising. You can narrate a story in a certain way, but the intention of the storyteller and what he or she wants to say has to emerge the way they want it.

Our writer duo Garima-Siddharth encapsulated that brilliantly in the script. Because what stood out for me was the presence and importance of the toilet. I insisted on talking about it through the characters in the film even though people hesitate to discuss it. The originality of the idea was the uniqueness of the film.

Shree Narayan Singh is a director and producer. He has directed films like Batti Gul Meter Chalu (2018), Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai (2012)

“Retain the original, stay true to facts”

By Raja Krishna Menon

My mantra is: As much as possible, retain the original and stay true to the facts. The question is, are you going to create a character that doesn’t exist because it’s easier to depict something or are you going to fictionalise an event?

There’s always an individual perspective and then there’s the bird’s-eye view of a historical event.

For example, while making Airlift (2016), there were extraordinarily different points of view depending on who I was speaking to. So, I had to pick what worked. If 10 people said the Iraqis were brutal and two said they were nice, I would choose the verified number.

But the medium doesn’t allow you to stick completely to facts because you have to pack it all in two hours; time frames must be compressed. As long as they are not derogatory or damaging to the facts or causing harm, you can take a few cinematic luxuries. No over-exaggeration, though.

For example, in Airlift, I gave Mathunny Mathews’ drive to Baghdad a ‘mission’ vibe, when in fact it was a regular drive for him. In the rescue scene, we had to decide whether to show how some Air India people didn’t want the evacuation.

The most difficult decision was to amalgamate eight people into one fictional character to essay them all.

As long as we don’t shroud fiction in the garb of fact, it works. 

Raja Krishna Menon is a history and philosophy buff who likes real-life stories. He has written Airlift (2016), Barah Aana (2009) and Bas Yun Hi (2003), and is directing a film starring Ishaan Khatter

From HT Brunch, October 04, 2020

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