Siyaah, an independent horror film produced by Imran Raza Kazmi and directed by Azfar Jafri, recently hit cinemas nationwide. Farheen Zehra got together for a quick Q&A with resident DWLer Osman Khalid Butt, who wrote the screenplay for the film.

FZ: So, a horror story screenplay. How did this happen?

OKB: I’d previously written several scripts [both short and long format] for theatre and had been adapting scripts for stage since my directorial debut Some Like it Hot back in 2007. I’d always wanted to write for film but our industry was ruled by the whims of a gandaasa and an electrocuted bosom, and my Punjabi was reserved to the odd off-color joke copied from desi dubbings of Hollywood movies [see: The Amazing Spiderman]. Recently, with the growth of the indie film industry, opportunities began arising, specifically with short films. In 2008, I started writing a series of shorts, beginning with a story called ‘Kalika’, which I’m hoping you’ll see on Facebook/Vimeo soon, Insha’Allah. However, I always found one reason or the other not to put my stuff ‘out there’, share it with other aspiring filmmakers/colleagues or just pick up a camera myself and shoot. I’m grateful Imran Kazmi [the producer of Siyaah] gave me a much-needed kick when he brought the concept of the film and scene breakdown in the winter of ’10.

Siyaah was conceived by Zahra Zaman Khan and actually went through three to four screenwriters before it came to me. I’ve had an unhealthy obsession with horror ever since Omar Ali Khan,  entrepreneur and director of Zibahkhana, lent my brother this B-movie called ‘Tourist Trap’ and the still-effective ‘Candyman’ back when it was still inappropriate for me to be watching horror. So when Imran asked me to expand on the concept of Siyaah and to rewrite its screenplay, I happily agreed, self-doubt for once gleefully thrown out the window. It wasn’t an easy process, mind you: bouts of creativity [or so we thought] were followed by weeks where I couldn’t write a single dialogue. I began writing the script beginning February, after getting done with prior commitments, and finished mid-July. Imran was with me every step of the way.

FZ: Which genre of horror appeals to you the most? Is it reflected in this script?

OKB: The tension before the reveal, if you will. Where the music – usually discordant violin – reaches a crescendo and then abruptly stops and you think, but not really, that the danger just might be over. The King of the genre [forgive the bad pun] spoke of terror and its types. Being a huge fan ever since I read ‘It‘, there were moments in the script where I tried to terrorize viewers with what I wrote: specifically with the fear and guilt carried by the principal character, Zara [played by Hareem Farooq], with those instances where Natasha gave that all-knowing smile and you knew she was plotting something terrifying – that edge-of-your-seat suspense. But there were also moments of horror, like in Natasha’s reveal: her brutality… her sheer evil. And of course, there were scenes that employed obvious gimmickry as well: the nods and references to several iconic horror films, pointed dialogue, the occasional slit throat and snakes and bogeymen.

FZ: What aspect of script writing did you find most challenging? What was the process like?

OKB: Procrastination. Had it not been for Imran practically dragging me out of bed, shoving a Red Bull down my throat as he opened up Microsoft Word for me, this script would never have seen the light of day. Also: hitting the proverbial writer’s Great Wall of China.

FZ: Unlike prose, is script writing a more collective effort? At what point did you share your draft with the director?

OKB: Yes, it is and in the case of Siyaah, perhaps even more so. In an industry that’s struggling to find its bearings, and particularly with an indie film, your screenplay does become a collaboration of many minds. For Siyaah, director Azfar Jafri had to improvise with a number of things I’d written. Certain dialogues and situations were changed, including the original ending (which I was aware of and participated in). Then there was the scene where the Pir opens the door to an alternate universe in his attempt to get away from Natasha. That was all Azfar. Improvisation is necessary because there are several constraints that accompany a filming process here: budget, schedules, timelines, technical support (and also the fact that your screenwriter has written a practically impossible-to-shoot scene where a body falls from the first floor and crash-lands into a windshield, with the principal character inside the car).

By the time I took on scriptwriting duties for Siyaah, there was an entire plot outline to follow. There were certain elements the producer wanted which I tried to give the old wine/new bottle makeover. Fortunately I was given free rein to construct the sequences, work on character development and present your usual horror-movie tropes in a contextualized, slick, different manner. While writing, I eventually embraced the fact that the movie was essentially a homage to the great horror films, before the gore and torture-porn masquerade started. That’s why you’ll see some subtle, some not-too-subtle pop-culture references thrown in there, including one involving pea soup [The Exorcist]. But mostly, though, it was me sitting in front of my computer, throwing ideas Imran’s way at 3 am whilst staring at a blinking cursor – and then working on constructing said scene when it felt right spoken out loud and envisioned.

For me, it was very important to have audiences connect with Zara’s character for that much-needed human element: to feel her disconnect and her silent suffering – and her unique relationship with her husband: easygoing on the surface, but quiet tensions simmering nonetheless. Hareem did a great job at peeling through Zara’s different layers and bringing them out. Zara is not just a ‘scream-queen’; she is a fleshed-out character. I’m glad the reviews have reflected that.

FZ: Is it safe to label you as a horror film writer or will you venture into other genres?

OKB: Oh, the latter, most definitely. Here at DWL, for example, my poetry and prose has been mostly about the macabre. Come to think of it, two of the four plays I directed under my banner were of the thriller/horror genre [The Good Doctor and Let Me In, the latter based on Stephen King’s novella ‘The Mist’] while the remaining two were musicals [Some Like It Hot and Superstar Avatar]. In the two feature films I’ve acted in, one had me regressing into a zombie and featured my own brand of projectile vomit [Zibahkhana, literally translated as Slaughterhouse]. So it’s safe to say that yes, I am most definitely interested in venturing out.

Comedy is a particular interest. One of the reasons I started video-blogging/performing comedy sketches on YouTube was to test the waters, so to speak; see what brand of humor worked best with viewers. From satire to dry wit to slapstick and the occasional cross-dressing, writing material for my v-logs has been an insane and yet illuminating process.

What I really want to write, and hopefully direct, is a kitschy Bollywood-esque dramedy. Horror might be considered a niche genre, but that’s not the only reason. I’ve said this so many times now it’s going to be written on my gravestone in all-caps, but I’ve grown up on a staple diet of Bollywood. I love the formula: the meet-cute, the music, the choreographed dance sequences, the complications arising smack before interval, the acoustic, stripped-down versions of the title songs for dramatic effect and the eventual happy ending. Feel-good cinema is where my head’s at these days. Actually that’s a lie. It’s been where my head’s at since I was eight.

 

Desi Writers Lounge is proud to announce its first monetary prize for writers.

The Dastaan Award, worth 50,000 Pakistani Rupees, will be given to one of the three winners of DWL’s annual short story competition. The title of the award pays homage to the South Asian tradition of the dastaan, which is synonymous with inspirational, world-class storytelling. The prize is open to writers from all over the world.

DWL will celebrate its seventh anniversary in 2013. Founded as a community to nurture writing talent from South Asia, it has painstakingly built up a fraternity of budding writers and created an online magazine to showcase new talent. The Dastaan Award is the first in an envisaged array of incentives for new writers that will be offered by DWL.

For more information on the Dastaan Award, please visit the award page on the Papercuts website.

(Posted by Omer Wahaj, Managing Editor of Papercuts)

This year, I decided to play a prank on DWL. The idea had actually come to me last year, in April 2012. Being inspired by Google, YouTube and the various other websites that prank their users on April 1, I thought it would be funny to change the names and descriptions of some of the boards on our forums to parodied versions of the originals. The joke would be meant for our users, who I hoped would enjoy it in keeping with the spirit of the day. I emailed the DWL administrator, Shehla, but the brain spark had come too late and it was already past half the day in Pakistan. We decided that we’d do it next year.

So this year, which is last year’s next year, I emailed Shehla again and we put our evil plan into action. At midnight, Pakistan Standard Time, Shehla made the changes.

 

 

 

 

Up until 6pm the next day, only two forum members had noticed that anything was different. If anyone else had, they hadn’t pointed it out. That’s when I decided to email Afia, the Editor of our magazine, who was busy vacationing in Sri Lanka completely oblivious to our scheme. I told her that the forums were messed up and we needed to email our webhosting providers to let them know that DWL’s security had been breached. She thought I was April Fooling her and didn’t even bother to log on to the forums. I also tweeted Waqas, another member of our core team. This is how that conversation went:

 

So far, our prank did not seem to be working well. But then our luck changed. Shehla was busy moving and she did not have a chance to change the text back. So when Waqas and Afia logged into the forums on 2^nd April, the parodied names on the boards were still there. This made the two of them suspicious (and a little panicky). On April 2^nd I received an email from Waqas:

“Subject: I guess the forums were hacked

So the titles of most of the categories on the forums are changed and some of the descriptions are altered, too. It’s not April Fools’ day any more. We need to find out who did this and how to get the titles and descriptions back to normal.”

To which Afia replied:

“Whoever did this should be on our team. They’re bloody clever with words. Evidently not a standard hacking job. So, my guesses: [3 potential parties that she suspected may have had reason to play a prank on DWL, whose names we cannot reproduce here for obvious reasons].

Would it be a dumb idea to acknowledge that this has happened and ask the person responsible to step forward because we’d like them on our team?”

What began as a prank on our users ended up fooling our own admin team, and they wanted to recruit the prankster! This was the icing on the cake. Made the whole thing completely worth it, and made the following email (forged to look like it had come from our webhost provider) all the more fun to send to them:

“Subject: Re: Forums Hacked?

Hello DWL Team aka Afia and Waqas (aka Vics),

I just looked over the DWL forums and everything appears to be normal. If you think that the forums were hacked and the names of the original threads replaced with “bloody clever words” then please contact Omer and Shehla because they just pulled a bloody April Fools joke on you!

Hahahahahhahahahaah. April fools, the both of you!

High five Shehla!

P.S. Whoever did this is already on your team.”

The forums are back to their original state now, but our prank’s been put up on the DWL Milestones thread for all posterity.