Juhi Chaturvedi: Scene Stealer

The first movie that Juhi Chaturvedi wrote, Vicky Donor, had an unusual plot of a man whose life changes through sperm donation. The movie had its flaws, but was a superhit. She then did dialogues for two more movies, Madras Café and Khoobsurat. But it was with Piku last year that Chaturvedi was acknowledged as one of the best writers in Bollywood. The story of the relationship between an old man obsessed with constipation and his daughter was again not usual Bollywood fare, but it went on to become an unexpected blockbuster. It is hard to find anyone who doesn’t like it. It got her a National Award and a Filmfare ‘black lady’. If the Hindi film industry is witnessing a wave of intelligent cinema for the masses, Chaturvedi is one of those at its forefront.

“For me, characters have to be fleshed out so well that they take the film forward. After a point, it is not necessarily the story that drives the film, but the characters and how they react to situations.”

See the complete list of Open Minds 2016: Soft Power

Bollywoodfilm scriptsHindi cinemascriptwriterVicky Donor