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The Certainty Business: How Hallmark Turns Predictability into Profit

You know what's the first rule of storytelling? To keep the audience guessing till the end. At least, that's what the rest of the world believes in. From HBO to Netflix and everything in between. The goal is to consistently...

Storytelling

Shifted Lens: Reframing PK and E.T. Through Fresh Eyes

I believe it was in some interview, where Director Govind Nihalani was discussing his film Ardh Satya (1983). The film was revered by masses and critics alike as India's first corrupt cop movie. That would mean an entire nation...

Room Notes

When Art Chooses You: Why Perfect Is the Enemy of Finished

It's 3:30 AM. In a couple of hours, I'm supposed to wake up and go to work. But here I am. Just wrapped a few scenes for a feature film and decided to stop for the night. I had cracked the screenplay till interval already, but...

Storytelling

How Chennai Express Found Characters, While Param Sundari Settled for Stereotypes

Bollywood loves its North-meets-South romances. We've seen them in Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), and 2 States (2014), where cultural clashes act as shorthand for conflict. But let's set those aside. For...

Storytelling

Param Sundari (2025): Why Bollywood’s Love Stories Keep Falling Flat

Param Sundari (2025), starring Sidharth Malhotra and Janhvi Kapoor in lead roles, is positioned as a romantic comedy. Param, a wayward second-generation entrepreneur, loves investing his father's wealth in new startup ideas—one...

Shop Talk

Have You Watched This? Or Do You Like That?

At the agency I work for, I once asked an influencer on my team to direct a spoken poetry video. It was a conceptual narrative with every chance of collapsing under a first-time storyteller. She panicked. She yelled that she had...

Musings

The Eklavya Principle and the Coaching Charade

The morning began with a note on my desk: Happy Teacher's Day. Beside it, a bar of chocolate. Instinctively, I smirked—and if I'm being honest, I was pleased. A moment later, the familiar parasite of impostor syndrome climbed...

Storytelling

Why Do Your Characters Feel Like They’re Trapped in an Echo Chamber?

There was a time I'd instinctively look away when an ad came on. Who wants to be sold something in the middle of a story? Now it's the reverse. I lean in, sometimes even replay ads just to admire their storytelling. Meanwhile,...

Musings

The Burden of Winning the Blame Game

It was past 11 PM, raining hard. I was on my way back from work after already spending three hours driving. In another ten minutes, I should have been home. Instead, my car broke down in the middle of the road where trucks...

Musings

When the Fight is done, will you be standing Tall?

During the Siege of Sardis (546 BCE), Croesus of Lydia was defeated by Cyrus of Persia. Croesus, who had been ruling for about 14 years until then, had fallen and was captured. He was about to be executed on a pyre when he...