Behind every exceptional movie, drama, or your most binge watched series is a person who worked tirelessly to bring it to the screen the way it is. Movies and TV series are not just an accumulation of dialogues and scenes, but many other elements like the mood, the lighting, the background, sound, etc. Screenwriters hold together the scriptwriters and the directors, and contribute significantly to filmmaking. We present to you an interview with Yashna Malhotra, a passionate screenwriter. She’s currently writing a project for her dream company run by filmmakers she respects and admires the most in the industry.

Early Life 

Yashna Malhotra was born and raised in Bombay. In 2014, she moved to Chicago for a Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. She wrote her first screenplay in 2014. During that time, she was committed to screenplay writing, however she had no plans to pursue it full time, until in 2017, the realisation crept that she wanted to commit to screenwriting full time as a profession. During this time, she was in New York working in advertising. She took the courage and moved to UCLA to pursue screenwriting. There in Los Angeles she received a formal training in screenwriting. Yashna Malhotra has an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA, with a focus on both features and series writing. 

The Steps to Achievements and Lessons

Yashna Malhotra took a leap of faith, moving away from a stable career in marketing to pursue screenwriting, a career in filmmaking, full-time. This was surely a difficult and risk induced decision, because in all honest facts, Yashna only had one self written screenplay in her hands when she decided to step off the more secured and planned path, and take a whole different route. Yashna says, “the blank page every day is a huge leap of faith. You have to believe you will be able to do it justice, and it can be very scary.”

Moreover, the filmmaking industry is unstable and volatile. We asked Yashna Malhotra to share how it has been to locate herself in the industry and keep up the perseverance. She replied that this is an ongoing process for her, and that the most important thing for any writer is that they must have something to say and know how to say it which should reflect in the writing. One’s writing samples are their calling-card for their voice and their brand as a writer. One’s voice must be loud enough in one’s writing. This is what she herself has been following.

On days when Yashna feels demotivated, she turns to entertainment pieces. The artistic creativity in movies, tv series, filmmaking, and even books, inspires her and gets her to break that feeling of ‘stuck’. 

Yashna has received recognition and awards from prestigious institutions, some of which are BAFTA and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. These have been huge milestones in her career so far. 

Choosing the Unconventional: Yashna Malhotra’s Message for the Young and Aspiring Artists.  

We live in a society that has established some stringent norms and parameters. Growing in such an environment, sometimes our life decisions get influenced by them. A rift thus gets created between expectations and desires. Yashna also found herself trapped between this. She says that she resisted pursuing filmmaking for the longest time because of how unsteady and turbulent an occupation in this industry could be. It took her a long time to shake that internal barrier within her and convince herself to take the risk of walking away from the traditional career paths. Since then, Yashna hasn’t taken her decision, and the fact that she can pursue the craft of screenwriting, for granted. She’s deeply respectful of the passion she’s pursuing. This fosters her zeal any time of the day! 

Yashna shares her opinions on talent. She says, “I think every human being is talented, but what you do with that talent is what will set you apart and get you to where you need to go.” Nobody could have described this better! Surely, one’s talent needs to be honed, otherwise it will stay as a stagnant, non-harnessed energy in one’s self. There can be no victory without hardwork. She further says that, “Screenwriting requires a tremendous amount of persistence, and just showing up to write every day, one word after another, requires another level of commitment”.

For all the aspiring young screenwriters, Yashna Malhotra asks them to question themselves if the regret of not even giving a chance to walk on the path you desire would haunt them several years later. If it will, then you will have to take that jump, that massive risk. She also suggests that don’t necessarily quit your day job, but try to take out time for writing, since it’s very difficult to focus on writing when you’re worried about making ends meet. So don’t quit your job, but make the time in your existing schedule to work on your material. When the time is right, you can transition into doing this full-time.

Oh to be a woman!

Being a woman is a journey unto itself, with its joys, hardships and rewards. It’s deeply personal and somehow fiercely unifying. We can’t help but wonder whether we really need to circle a special day in the calendar to celebrate all women when logic dictates that we should be doing that everyday— without exceptions. But what this day represents most strongly is hope, a bridge. It’s a testament to all the women before us and a promise to those after us. It’s a vision of a day in the near future where respect and opportunity are so generously given to all women everywhere that we won’t need a day like this anymore.

But until then, let’s take a minute and learn about one of these incredible women who are heralding us into a better future, Midhula Devabhaktuni.

I’d like you to picture a young girl in the beautiful river city of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. Growing up with a younger sister and brother, she imbibed the values of entrepreneurship very early on from her father, who instilled deeply in her the importance of carving your own destiny equally in her and her siblings. At the age of 2, she started going next door to learn classical dancing after being enamoured with it & picked up Sulman Rushdie in 6th class. And by 8th standard, she had an X-ray like clarity on her future. Which took her from a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University to a Master’s in Computer Science from Florida State University (and an MBA too!). Not to forget the dance diploma as well.

Today she, along with her loving husband is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Mivi-one of India’s most beloved homegrown electronics brands.

On Passion

Passion is central to Midhula’s exceptional journey. In India, engineering courses are considered the most obvious thing to do until challenged. This has led to a culture where many kids get into it without a real love for it. Midhula on the other hand has always been obsessed with innovations in computer science and thrives on the challenge that coding poses. She knew very early on that she wanted to bring her own solutions to the table by becoming an entrepreneur (a love shared by her husband as well). After several stable & well-paying jobs in the United States of America, they took a calculated risk of filling the gap of high-quality electronics in India. 8 months of R&D later, Mivi was launched. She says, “if you’re not passionate about your business and how you solve a problem in the market then don’t do it”. Even though there might be thousands of other competitors, they shouldn’t be the reason why you enter the business. It should all come from within you.

For youngsters trying to discover their passions, Midhula very wisely advises, “you don’t need to be passionate about everything, just always be willing to learn and absorb as much as you can from all different domains. And soon, you’ll find your ‘own’ areas.”

A look into her personal life

It’s with this exact fervour that she also parents two toddlers under the age of 3. Motherhood like everything is a learning process and through time she has learnt the valuable lesson of being open to help. Willingness to seek help is a very underrated and dare I say, underappreciated trait in modern times. This is why Midhula detests the image of a ‘supermom’. It shouldn’t be expected of a mother to be an innate supernatural multi-tasking machine when the same is not expected from both the parents.

Her call-to-action to young parents is to raise a generation that learns the concept of respect, unity and kindness early on. “It will only take one generation to raise people who all know how to respect and encourage women” she posits. Which is where her love for reading comes in. Reading can give you the exposure and the wonderful gift of seeing the world from the window of another’s mind. Always up for a challenge, the top item on her bucket list is to keep improving at negotiating and sales skills as well as to master the Hindi language.

Before we go!

Her message to all young women out there is to follow your heart always and never look for validation outside of yourself. Filter every decision through the ‘inner you’. For all young hopeful entrepreneurs, her number one tip is to learn to be “patient and consistent. Value people and give them time, results will surely come later”

Once again, wishing all our dear readers a very happy International Women’s Day!

Listen to the full Podcast by Tunvey Gogia!

Tamannaah is a well-renowned Indian actress who has predominantly worked in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. In this one hour long unfiltered podcast, Ranveer Allahbadia and Tamannaah talk on a multitude of topics; from the film industry to mental health and meditation, to love and relationships and even entrepreneurship. 

The Ranveer Show is known to be intellectual, deep and informational. And that is exactly what this interview was. Tammanah gets extremely personal as she answers all of Ranveer’s questions with utmost honesty. 

After having worked in over 60 films, from Bahubali, Entertainment to Paiyaa, she talks about her take on happiness and what life has become after fame. Discussing topics of nepotism and pressure on male actors, sexism, she also talks about the culture differences between Tollywood and Bollywood.

Ranveer and Tamannaah have a heavy conversation on her experience with corona. But they proceed to talk about spirituality and the future. While briefly discussing her love life, she talks about all the marriage pressure she has to face even as a star. Just like every other young woman. While briefly giving her two cents on sexism, she also brings up how easily people fat-shame, with absolutely no remorse. It’s 2020, and such people still exist.

This isn’t all though, light-hearted discussions on the extremely talented actress’ dream man, continues. You won’t just get a scoop of the film industry but get to learn from the life experiences of these two talented young people, as their talk proceeds. 

Check out the video version of the podcast below!

A soaring artist graced with an angelic charm, Chitranshi  Dhyani has always been an enthusiastic performer. She is a trained classical dancer, a model, a jolly traveller and an upcoming actress. Her passion for acting springs from her immeasurable love for cinema. Every movie that she watches imprints a world of visuals in her mind. Needless to say that she is beyond excited at the cue of lights, camera, and action at the beginning of a take. Always happy to face the camera, she views cinema as a vehicle of expression that accelerates performers to actively unlock fresh impulses of creativity that spread in every direction. As a blossoming actress, she is keen on playing a range of richly textured characters that resonates at an aesthetic level. She views character development in the movie as an opportunity to evoke a sense of deep and personal connection with the audience. Furthermore, every role sets the stage for the player to embrace a plurality of experiences that animate spontaneity of thoughts and an inimitable artistic perception.

Her latest foray into music videos has been winning hearts. In her latest video, she features as the female lead for Punjabi track “Saroor” which essentially frames a love-at-first-sight romantic narrative.

Her determination, coupled with her charismatic nature makes her well suited for a career in the media industry. The pandemic might have resurfaced the uncertainty of the modern age, but Chitranshi is hopeful that good tidings are round the corner. As she eagerly awaits exploring newer opportunities and aiming higher goals, we, at the Talented Indian community, extend our warm wishes for all her future projects.

Stay tuned in with TTI for Chitranshi’s interview that catches a glimpse of who she is and what she aspires to be. She talks about her childhood, her college days, her travels, her dreams and much more.

Human psychology is nothing but extremely weird, at one point we dread the unknown but at the same time, we can’t help but yearn for it. The curiosity of imagining the history that led to our existence seems to be inextinguishable. Almost hand-in-hand is the desire to imagine a world entirely different from ours, a fantastical place where the rules of our land
don’t apply. Cinema and filmmaking make this dream of ours come true.

In this episode of DC’s FlashBack, the guys discuss why historical/fantastical remain etched in our brains forever and why some are not quite able to hit the mark. The premier and ultimate example of this is the magnum opus Mughal-e-Azam. It remained synonymous with historical cinema for generations until there emerged a worthy successor: Jodha Akbar. Both
these films had a lot in common; their long durations, expensive budgets, lack of special effects and a pinch of realism that made them unforgettable.

Following their blueprints, the last few decades have seen an uproar in the fantasy and historical genre of films. Movies like Bahubali, Bajirao Mastani, Tanhaji and more have stood on the shoulders of their ancestors and done wonders. Some have made their mark and some didn’t, the hosts give reasons as to why that might be. Art-seekers and cinephiles cannot miss out on their passionate discussions and amazing enthusiasm.