USP TALES: Celluloid to Stories of Life

After passing out of Film & Television Institute of India, Pune, as a qualified filmmaker, I aspired to become a big league movie director. Though I couldn't fulfil my target, but I survived well. During this journey, I wrote over 40 fully developed scripts and that many plots, totalling nearly 100. Recently, I thought that before Yamaraj (Lord of Death) summons me, I need to convert those scripts into novels, so that they remain for posterity.

My debut novel's favourite story is Devna, a psychological drama, about an orphan girl suddenly discovering that she has a real mother. Thereafter, her thrilling journey takes her to the family she always wanted. During her journey she comes across many good and bad, and its her belief of 'To Love is to Give', till all persons, situations and obstacles, change till the unexpected thrilling climax.

Another favourite, Champa, again about a poor orphan girl adopted by villagers of a picturesque village set in a hill station. A beautiful world has been created by her and the village head's blind son. An abrupt end comes to their dream world as the village head's son, after an eye operation, gets his eyesight back. Their dream world turns topsy-turvy, full of obstacles for Champa.

One of my favourite dream projects, Prem Sagar, is about a puritan young professor, for whom his mother was God like supreme. His world of ideals crumbles when he discovers that the mother he always worshipped was not his real mother, but another biological mother waiting to see him before her death. A bigger shock hits him on hearing that his mother in fact had made millions from her ill-famed flesh trade. What his mother said before her death, helps him, to see life in true colours and carry on her mission.

The king of all my story plots is a comic thriller titled 'Dulhan Chor' (The Bride Thief), I developed with my good old friend Shekhar Kapur. A love triangle between a stinkingly rich old man in his late 60s, who forgot to get married, his young dream girl from his native village and her poor struggling young hero, who never loved her. The thriller with funny characters and situations lead to a grand climax.

My next, Ab Laut Chalen (The Last Journey Home), is an emotional drama about a Kashmiri Hindu refugee dreaming of returning to his Kashmir valley. While Anuradha is an emotional thriller about a rich girl in search of love, getting entangled with crime and the ruthless world. Another favourite dream project, Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan (Life & Death – a Mystery), is a social drama inspired by Gautam Buddha's philosophy and Akira Kurosawa's Red Bread.

Readers will find Bandhan (Ties of Blood and Heart), an unusual family drama about a business tycoon trying to connect with his grandson, who hated his grandfather. Everyone's favourite will be Saat Phere (Seven Vows), a high intensity suspense family drama.

Inspired by my father's love for his native village, Dreamland, a social drama about a young man dreaming of turning his native place a dreamland, opposed by his own natives. While Tamasha (Scandal) is a social family drama about a rich businessman and his private secretary.

My next, Nishthoori (Justice Reborn), after my two Nepali directorial projects, is a rural based emotional investigation mystery plot involving reincarnation. The real climax of all is one of my favourite dream projects, an emotional family drama and a thriller about today's pollution titled Zahar (Poison). Its about an impossible battle between one man and the lobby of powerful industrialists.