Showrunner Sudip Sharma who is currently basking in the success of the crime-investigative drama ‘Kohrra’, said it’s his curiosity to understand India better, and that’s what drives his urge to travel to different places with his work.
The screenwriter Sudip has an array of work like ‘Pataal Lok’, ‘NH10’, ‘Pari’, ‘Udta Punjab’, ‘Sonchiriya’ based in cities like Delhi-NCR, West Bengal, Chambal, and Punjab.
On his fascination of showcasing stories of different places, Sudip told IANS: “I am really trying to understand this country myself, It’s such a complex and fascinating country with so many regions geography, languages, cultures and subcultures.”
“We are sitting in our homes, offices in cities, we know so little about it. I have this curiosity inside me really to understand this country better, and that’s what takes me to all of these places. I just want to know what these places are about, who these people are that we read/ hear about, or what makes them end up doing things that they end up doing. It is that curiosity, which is driving this urge of mine to travel to different places with my work,” he said.
Sudip elaborates on why he majorly portrays the violence, and law and order situation of such places in his work.
“With violence, you are really trying to understand why human beings do what they do. And what makes them succumb to these sort of instincts of their characters. It’s the extension of that curiosity, that exploration of human conduct and character,” he said.
A lot of his writing comes from imbibing experiences and reactions from real life rather than imagination. Sudip said he always believed that there are two kinds of writers — writers of familiarity and writers of curiosity.
“You have equally good writers in both of these styles of writing. You can either write about what you know, and are very familiar with, then dig really deep into understanding these people who you really know about. Or you can say I don’t know a set of people, or this particular region and I am curious about it and I want to know more about it,” he said.
“So I think I am more a writer of curiosity. There are things, people, phenomenon, and regions, and culture that I am curious about, and I don’t know enough about, and I want to know more about. And that kind of drives my urge to try and understand the world better,” shared Sudip.
Sudip further said it was very difficult to break through as a writer in the Hindi film industry, and a lot of it was to do with his own shortcomings.
“It’s very easy to call yourself a writer, all you need to do is write a script. The first part of the journey was really navigating the various ins and outs of the industry. It was also really to first become a good writer, or a decent enough writer, who should be making films and that journey took a good 5-6 years for me where I could get to a position, where I could churn out scripts, that I felt or people around me felt were worth making,” he said.
Sudip, however, said that he doesn’t like to glorify the struggle too much.
“I think it’s part of the process. I do not like glorifying that struggle too much. I really believe in the 10000 hour rule and I believe that if you have to become good in any field, you have to spend 10000 hours at least very minimum to acquire the craft, to hone your skills,” he added.
On the work front, he has ‘Pataal Lok Season 2’.
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