Dialogue writer Rohit K Sharma, whose film Santosh was appreciated at Cannes, underlines the importance of the script and its handling

Sheetal

“Santosh was meant for festivals likes Cannes,” says dialogue writer Rohit K Sharma, who has been in touch with the film’s director Sandhya Suri and the cast, Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar, ever since it was screened at Cannes on Monday. “People applauded Sandhya, who made her debut at Cannes with Santosh, which was showcased in the Un Certain Regard category. It’s a proud moment for us,” he says.

Chandigarh connect

Rohit spent five years in Chandigarh, as he studied at Government School, Sector 11, and later passed out from the Department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University. He says, “I have been a part of plays and was appreciated for my work. It encouraged me to choose this career. I was a student of theatre thespian Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry. She was one person who deeply inspired me. In Mumbai, I first started as assistant director and worked in My Name Is Khan.”

Rohit, who has been credited for many other Hollywood and Bollywood projects as a script supervisor, shares, “When I assumed the role of dialogue supervisor for Santosh, I gave an honest feedback that even if the script was in English, the dialogues should be in the language of the region. And when I asked if they had someone to write dialogues, they told me to give it a try.”

Rohit, who wrote and directed the Punjabi short film Qalandar, premiered at MAMI, Mumbai and New York Indian Film Festival, says script supervisor is more of a western concept that is slowly picking up in Mumbai. “Basically, it’s about avoiding the loopholes when a script is put to action, which is generally not shot in the linear manner. So, our job is to avoid factual errors, and make sure the sets, props, aesthetics and situation adhere to the script and the character’s arc,” he explains.

Keen observation

Rohit has written a song and additional dialogues for The White Tiger. He supervised scripts for successful films like The Song of Scorpions, Titli and TV series Treadstone, says his inclination towards films was because of the environment at his home. Rohit’s father is a film buff, while his brother, Mohit Sharma, is an actor. Born in Jammu and having lived in various places like Chandigarh and Ghaziabad, thanks to his father’s government job, Rohit feels it has been really helpful in writing scripts. “I didn’t have to try hard to write dialogues that reek of misogyny, religious biases and class divide. It’s all that you observe around you. But, yes, for the dialect part you have to keep your ears and eyes open.”

Talking about Santosh, Rohit feels it’s shot in a very authentic manner. “It was shot with raw background noise and all, just like the sound design of The Lunchbox. Even the titular character does not have many dialogues. Its treatment is very global.”

Up next

For Rohit, the most challenging project has been Dibakar Banerjee’s Titlee, which also went to Cannes in 2014 under the same category, Un Certain Regard. Now, Rohit is awaiting the release of Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Despatch for which he supervised the script. He is also working on a script with Mirzapur creator and writer Puneet Krishna.