'Sholay, Deewar inspired 3 Idiots'

Most of you who have seen 3 Idiots will agree that the film's hillarious dialogues and scenes are just one of the reasons the movie is such a hit.

And while Raj Kumar Hirani deserves praise for penning some of the lines, there's another man who belongs right up there with the director. That man is Abhijat Joshi, a professor of English at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, who co-wrote 3 Idiots with Hirani. Joshi has earlier worked with Hirani in another of the director's blockbuster, Lage Raho Munnabhai.

Joshi tells Patcy N all about working in the two blockbusters and more.

How did you get associated with 3 Idiots and Lage Raho Munnabhai?

I studied in the Gujarati medium, which is one reason why I was able to write Lage Raho Munnabhai as I had access to Gandhi's words in his own language. I studied Science to become an engineer but later changed to Arts because I thought I would make a bad engineer. So I studied English Literature and started teaching in Ahmedabad after my graduation. I wrote a play, Shaft of Sunlight for which I won the BBC World play contest in England. Vinod [Vidhu Chopra, producer of 3 Idiots, Lage Raho Munnabhai] happened to see the play and that's how we started working together.

He saw the play and sought you out?

He was in England for the Birmingham Film Festival where his films were being showcased. He saw my play and loved it. He left his visiting card for me at the theatre. I was in Paris at that time. Anyway, I got the visiting card and contacted him when I reached Mumbai. The very first thing that he asked me as soon as I called him was, 'you are a damn good playwright. When will your writing get corrupted?' I replied, 'never'. He then said, 'The day you get corrupted you will be thrown out'. He then offered me a job and I started writing with him. But my film with him, Kareeb was a huge disaster. Vinod almost lost his house because of that.

Why do you think Kareeb failed? Did its failure help you in future?

I now know why Kareeb did not work. It was because in the second half, my hero was passive and static. This mistake helped me when we were writing Lage Raho Munnabhai. In the early draft of Lage Raho Munnabhai, we had written about a hunger strike. But the story failed to take off from there. I remembered the mistake with Kareeb so instead of making Munna go on a hunger strike, we decided to let him go the radio instead. That's how the whole radio thing came about. Imagine if we had gone with the early draft?

Why the shift to the US?

After Kareeb failed, I realised that I needed to learn a lot about screen writing. I was just 23 when I wrote my first screenplay. I was very raw. I needed more exposure so I joined Michener Center for Writers in the US and lived there for three years. I started teaching there to learn about their culture. Now I live six months here [Mumbai] and six months there. When I did not have a job in the US, Vinod sponsored me for one whole year. He told me that he would support me till I got a job.

You're based in the US. How do you and Hirani work together?

I come every six months to India while Raju comes twice or thrice to the US. So we stay connected for 8 to 9 months. Emails and telephone take care of the rest.


Image: A scene from 3 Idiots, inset Abhijat Joshi