The Hero’s Act
The Hero's Act Sun sinks in the sky’s lament, Still you wait for your moment, Caged in your self-made shrine, Dreaming of your day to shine. "There must be a better way," you say, "One day I’ll rise and make my hay. Today’s...
The Anatomy of a Spark: How a Random Social Media Post Pulled Me Back to Direction
When I wrote and directed Stripped, I made myself a promise: I would never direct again unless every ingredient was right. Stripped got its share of attention. It travelled, got reviewed, went viral organically, and in many ways...
When the Wrong Hero Takes the Journey: The Narrative Collapse of Thamma
In Hollywood's mythology, vampires have always ruled the supernatural hierarchy—elegant, eternal, and terrifyingly in control. Even when pitted against werewolves, they stood at the top of the food chain. But in Maddock's...
The Certainty Business: How Hallmark Turns Predictability into Profit
You know what's the first rule of storytelling? To keep the audience guessing till the end. At least, that's what the rest of the world believes in. From HBO to Netflix and everything in between. The goal is to consistently...
Shifted Lens: Reframing PK and E.T. Through Fresh Eyes
I believe it was in some interview, where Director Govind Nihalani was discussing his film Ardh Satya (1983). The film was revered by masses and critics alike as India's first corrupt cop movie. That would mean an entire nation...
When Art Chooses You: Why Perfect Is the Enemy of Finished
It's 3:30 AM. In a couple of hours, I'm supposed to wake up and go to work. But here I am. Just wrapped a few scenes for a feature film and decided to stop for the night. I had cracked the screenplay till interval already, but...
How Chennai Express Found Characters, While Param Sundari Settled for Stereotypes
Bollywood loves its North-meets-South romances. We've seen them in Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), and 2 States (2014), where cultural clashes act as shorthand for conflict. But let's set those aside. For...
Param Sundari (2025): Why Bollywood’s Love Stories Keep Falling Flat
Param Sundari (2025), starring Sidharth Malhotra and Janhvi Kapoor in lead roles, is positioned as a romantic comedy. Param, a wayward second-generation entrepreneur, loves investing his father's wealth in new startup ideas—one...
Have You Watched This? Or Do You Like That?
At the agency I work for, I once asked an influencer on my team to direct a spoken poetry video. It was a conceptual narrative with every chance of collapsing under a first-time storyteller. She panicked. She yelled that she had...
The Eklavya Principle and the Coaching Charade
The morning began with a note on my desk: Happy Teacher's Day. Beside it, a bar of chocolate. Instinctively, I smirked—and if I'm being honest, I was pleased. A moment later, the familiar parasite of impostor syndrome climbed...