Mumbai Ink

Failure is not an option. And making an issue about it is certainly out of the question. May be that8217;s what makes Shagufta Rafique more like a man.

Shagufta Rafique8217;s bold wordplay is making quite a screen presence

Failure is not an option. And making an issue about it is certainly out of the question. May be that8217;s what makes Shagufta Rafique more like a man. Not that it8217;s an attack on the fairer sex, talk to her and she8217;ll remind you of Thomas Edison 8211; the girl8217;s found her 2000 ways of how not to make a bulb! And it8217;s this endearing quality of hers, you know of hangin8217; in there, that8217;s put her name on the Bolly-map. After roughing it out for more than a decade, Shagufta8217;s finally scripted her way to success. A screen writer, she8217;s penned films like Woh Lamhe, Awarapan, Dhokha, and now the latest, Raaz 8211; The Mystery Continues.

8220;I8217;m a born liar, always landed in trouble and always cooked up stories to wriggle out of tight corners8230;my folks used to laugh that I8217;ll be a great storyteller one day,8221; Shagufta turns the pages of her story first. 8220;My mother and my sister were failed actresses, something I couldn8217;t relate to, so I promised myself success.8221; Which she got, but not before she hit ground zero. To fuel her passion, Shagufta didn8217;t hesitate to put her singing skills to use and earn a few extra bucks. 8220;Those were the beer bar days,8221; she smiles. Couple of television soaps later, she hit pay dirt when Mohit Suri from the Bhatt camp approached her to write Woh Lamhe. 8220;The 8216;90s were testing times8230;being an assistant director with Mahesh Bhatt and working with writer Jai Dikshit. It was in 2002 that I went back to the Bhatt camp and penned Woh Lamhe.8221; What you don8217;t get anywhere in the industry, you get it at the Bhatt camp. Shagufta found appreciation for her work in the Bhatt playground, 8220;which is dark, intense and high on emotional quotient, something which only the Bhatts understood.8221; Cutting the mustard in a male-dominated area was a tad tough, but Shagufta stuck to her guns. 8220;I8217;ve never been a believer of sniffs and sobs, or films on child abuse, dowry, or all those women-oriented subjects. Frankly, these don8217;t entertain and there are no takers for it. I enjoy the Russian Leo Tolstoy form of writing, hardcore works in Hindi literature and words of Urdu poets where characters are sketched out and stories are dramatic laced with complex human relationships. This was a challenge I readily accepted,8221; Shagufta soon proved to her male counterparts that she was here to stay.

At present, she8217;s has written a film for UTV titled Sin City, Jashnn -The Music Within for Vishesh Films, Kajraare for T Series which is directed by Pooja Bhatt and Jism 2 which will also be directed by Pooja Bhatt. But the closest to her is Cabaret, a musical love drama, 8220;where the man leaves everything for this dancer. You8217;ll find shades of my beer bar days in it.8221; Pooja8217;s directing this one too.

In the meantime, this fiery writer is looking forward to Raaz. 8220;Interestingly, the story revolved around Kabir8217;s doha 8211; bura je dekhan chala main, bura na mila koi8230;I just felt like writing a script around it. It8217;s a horror suspense 8211; what happens when your deeds shake your world inside out and how that thing comes back and haunts you.8221; Karmic!

Script is the king, and finally writers are getting their due. 8220;Just keep up to date, remember, there is no formula,8221; she signs off.