The shooting of S'kali is now well underway at its various locations. This is the second instalment of my three part interview with the director/writer, Arivind Abraham. This time, Arivind talks about the evolution of the screenplay for S'kali.
-Keith Leong
Q: I understand that the script of S’kali has undergone extensive, if not downright radical revisions in the years that you have developed it. Can you chronicle for us the progression that your screenplay has made from the moment the idea to write it initially came to you till this day? How different is your very first draft to the one that you will shoot with come January 2006?
A: The very seed of the movie came from a dream. One night, for some weird reason when I was about 15 I had a dream about a guy driving in the rain, trying to get to the woman he loved who was about to get onto a plane.
The scene played out U2’s “Faraway (So Close)” from their Zooropa album.
I woke up and knew that that was to be the ending of my film.
I then began to doodle on the script for years. It started out being a film about 5 guy friends and then I got older and things happened to me and it became a love story and then Sepet came out.
That was the best thing in a way that happened to me.
It forced me out of my comfort zone of always ending up at that ending and forced me to write a better screenplay. One about 5 friends. A “St. Elmo’s Fire” for our times.
Q: Just how does an ‘Arivind Abraham movie’ get written? Do you have a specific regime or do scripts just flow as and when they come to you?
A; Well this is my first feature so my technique is still moulding itself. I start with the basic act structure. I know what tent-poles I want to reach by what pages and I know where I want to end up. Then I just let the characters write themselves based on the character essays I have done for them from the very beginning.
And I constantly redraft.
Q: Many feel that censorship is the Number One problem for Malaysian artists from all genres. What is your take on this?
A: I used to use this one as an excuse. And Moon from MFX told me straight off, “How do you explain Iran then?”
Q: Were there any scenes in S’kali that you found difficult or painful to write?
A: Not really.
Q: Now tell me the truth. Either than the protagonists (Ravin, Tze Huey, Bahir, Tzao and Tehmina), who is your FAVOURITE character(s) in the movie?
A: No comment. Ask me again after the shoot.
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2 comments:
Seriously, your promotion plan is just plain lame.
The interview sounded as if the director had interviewed himself...
Though probably on par with cinema-online kind of journalism which is kinda sucks.
heard the word 'humility'?
The interviews on this blog were conducted by Keith Leong, a member of Perantauan Enterprise and the creative team of S'kali. All the questions were written by him and him alone. We would like to reiterate that this blog is not part of our movie's promotion, but rather a place where members of the Cast and Crew of S'kali can put up their thoughts and comments on the production.
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