There is a dearth of good writers in Bollywood – this is a common statement uttered by most directors and producers in the Hindi film industry and yet, one sees very little effort on their part to scout for good stories or provide writers with the right platform to showcase their talent. Having said that, in the recent past, one has seen the credit titles of many films adorning the names of new writers. This month, there will be another writer who will be making his debut not just in the film but also in the digital space.
While writer Sanjeev K Jha will have to wait until 12th July to see his name on the big screen for the first time as that is when the Sidharth Malhotra – Parineeti Chopra starrer ‘Jabariya Jodi’ releases, his first feature film will hit the small screen, that is, the digital space a few days prior to that. The Bugs Bhargava directed feature-length film ‘Barot House’ will start streaming on the OTT platform Zee5.
What is interesting is that while ‘Jabariya Jodi’ is a romantic comedy which explores the issue of ‘pukadwa shaadi’ or groom kidnapping in the state, ‘Barot House’ is a dark thriller set in a completely different milieu. Sanjeev, who has earlier written some popular TV shows like ‘Crime Patrol’, ‘Code Red’ and ‘Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya’ in the past, hails from the state of Bihar where, incidentally, the story of ‘Jabariya Jodi’ is set in.
With the two films being vastly different from each other and releasing on two distinctively different platforms, this is definitely one of the most interesting debuts for a writer in recent times.