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E13: Fashion Breakdown · Breakdown Besties | Bollywood Screenwriting Podcast

• Breakdown Besties Podcast: Hi again bestie, for our next week we are breaking down the film Lootera. Yeah, it's a beautiful film. Watch it if you can before our episode comes out so that you're up to speed when we breaking it down along with you. See you next Thursday. Ananya: everyone and welcome to another episode of the Breakdown Besties podcast. I'm Ananya. Akshay: I'm Akshay. Ananya: And we are your breakdown besties. Combined, we have 14 years of experience writing shows for platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney +, writing shows like Mismatched, Wedding.con, Ishq in the Air, Grahan, Inside Edge, Rana Naidu and a host of others that have gotten stuck in development hell, but will hopefully see the light of day one day. With the Breakdown Besties podcast, our goal is to break down screenwriting techniques used on the page in iconic Bollywood films to make them come alive on the screen. We do them just like they would do in film school, where you study a scene and see what works, what doesn't work and how can you emulate those techniques in your own writing. Today, the film that we're going to be breaking down 2008 Madhur Bhandarkar's epic- Fashion. Story and screenplay by Madhur Bhandarkar, Ajay Monga, Anuradha Tewari. Additional screenplay by Niranjan Iyengar and Niranjan Patwardhan. And dialogues by Niranjan Iyengar yet again. we know, Madhur Bhandarkar is a filmmaker. Even the film fashion, he has done a call back to himself where the characters are in a random ⁓ film centric location and some people spot him Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: and say, he's a realistic filmmaker. He won't even leave the fashion industry alone. He must have here to do research. So keeping in line with his signature style, he has made yet very realistic film on the fashion exploring the ⁓ dark and dirty secrets and bringing them to the light, right? Akshay: Maybe he came here for research. Something like that. Yeah. Ananya: So let's begin how we always begin by getting into the logline of the film, right? So what is the logline? The logline is your guiding light in the film. It helps you understand the forest for the trees when you're too deep into the weeds of writing your screenplay and don't really remember what the point of your scene of your dialogue of your film is. The logline is so effective at doing this because it contains four essential elements. The first element is your flaw, block, limitation or wound. It is essentially something that the character lacks within them, which is stopping them from accomplishing element number 2, their goal. The goal is the final prize at the end of the film. It's what we're setting out the film to watch. It's the journey our character is going on. Without a goal, you don't really have a film. Or you do, but they are called indie films. Next. you have conflict. Conflict is the story engine. It is the obstacle or are the various obstacles your character is going to meet on their journey of achieving their goal. This conflict is going to make the character confront their need, confront their flaw and change who they are and rebuild themselves from within so that they can get what they want without and that is the goal. And then the final element is the stakes. Stakes are what your character loses should they not achieve the goal. It's not simply failing to achieve the goal. It's taking the characters level lower. What do they lose should they not achieve this goal? So I've got the log line of Fashion written ⁓ and let know what you think of it. ⁓ When a small town girl comes to Mumbai against her parents' wishes to become a supermodel, Akshay: Okay. Ananya: she must learn to navigate the cutthroat forces of the world of fashion, lest she be left with nothing and nobody. Akshay: Yeah, again the last stake is a question mark, right? Like again, what we've in like films earlier, like this is a film which doesn't establish a stake immediately. Ananya: Question mark, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the only reason I've built it into this log line as I haven't for say a guru or an English winglish is because up top in the film when Priyanka Chopra leaves her house, she's essentially leaving her family and if she doesn't make it, she has not only lost her family but lost everything in the process so she has nothing to come home to. So that was... Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ Yeah, But that doesn't affect the story of the film anyway. Ananya: the story at all. no. Yeah, even in Guru, in fact, he loses his dad and that's not stakes. It's not like, and it's not like if Priyanka Chopra becomes successful, her parents will be like, okay, we accept you Yeah. Their issue with fashion is more ideological than anything else. That's right. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. They'll accept her. Huh. Yeah. Yeah. yeah exactly the only The only stake is that she will never be able to be who she wants be ⁓ like that's the stake Ananya: wants to be. Exactly, which is like in Guru where he won't get to be the person who achieves his goal. I think in films like this, the stake is very internal, right? Where the stake is you are not able to ⁓ see your potential as a human being and you ⁓ a life without truly having seen yourself, without truly understood what you are capable of. Akshay: Huh. Yeah. Hmm, yeah. being. Hmm. Ananya: Or the stakes are realising that maybe you're not capable of what you thought you were. So losing faith in yourself, losing your own self-belief is the underlying stake of this film, which is greater than anything material, right? Akshay: Yeah. Hmm. Ananya: They've given everything and now ⁓ they have more to give and they still didn't make it. Meaning they are not capable as they thought they were. And that loss of self-confidence is something that they lose beyond not reaching the goal. Akshay: Yeah. Hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But again, that's a stake they weren't aware of. Huh, yeah. Ananya: Not aware of, no, no, absolutely not. But I think all, it's a very human thing, right? Like, it's like when we were giving our CA exams, and you can speak of this more than I can, but when like you didn't pass in the first attempt, it was not like you just didn't pass, you lost faith in yourself. And for you to pass, you had to rebuild faith in yourself in order to be able to Akshay: Yeah, yeah. Hmm. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Ananya: then take the exams again. Akshay: Right, exactly. Again, but that wasn't even a part of my ⁓ understanding that something like this could happen. Like that was never a stake. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Ananya: Exactly, it's only once you lost it that you realized it. That...fuck. So apart from the stakes, we do have three essential elements built right into the log line, which are one, a limitation that she has, which is that she's naive and from a small town. So she doesn't know how the world works. Then she has a goal, become a supermodel and the conflict which is navigate the cutthroat forces of the fashion world. So cutthroat automatically challenges naive, right, and creates a lot of conflict. Akshay: naive. Ananya: Cool. we go into the hero's journey next? Akshay: Let's do it. Yeah. Ananya: Your hero's journey is the structural spine of your film. It is the emotional beats which your story has to hit at every so often so that to give your audiences an emotional hit. This brings them along the journey and makes them experience it along with your character. So even if sometimes your plot is a little weak or your characters aren't exactly arcing the way you want them to arc, giving these emotional beats every so often ensures that your audience is still sticking around for the journey while pushing your character to grow from within the script. It's a great diagnostic tool to use after you've written your script because it gives you a sense of whether your character is growing the way it should and the plot is progressing the way it should. The first beat in your hero's journey is the ordinary world. The ordinary world is the world in which the character exists before they have set out to achieve their goal. It establishes the who, what, where, why and when of their current circumstances and we see why they haven't been able to achieve their goal yet. In the world of fashion, we see Priyanka Chopra's ordinary world which is coming from Chandigarh to Bombay and essentially becoming a struggler. She goes for casting calls, she... has a portfolio which is kind of weak. She is taken around to see the fashion world and explained the who's who because she has no idea. And she's essentially given the lowdown of this world and she's struggling. The call to action first comes when a casting for the strugglers, I want to say pimp but... there I said it pimp. As ⁓ Yeah, she's a cool character, but she is... yeah. But her style is more like I'm pimping you out more than, you know, I'm finding you a gig. Which is fine. Like, she does a good job. So Shoumu finds her a lingerie ad or lingerie as she likes to call it. this is her being beckoned into the new world that you want to become a model. Akshay: So moved. Yeah, she's a cool character. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ananya: Here you are being called to become a model for a lingerie shoot. But she refuses the call. She says, no, I do not want to be like a lingerie model. She has a moral stance on it. She's not going to do it. But then she to kind of cough up the money for a new portfolio and she doesn't know where to bring it from. At this point, Rohit, her kind of mentor and that maybe you should consider Shomu's ad and you should do the lingerie shoot. Priyanka is really backed into a corner. She has to generate the come up with the money to pay for the shoot. So she says okay. So this happens when she meets the mentor. In this I'd say there are two mentors for this particular event to happen. Shomo the casting agent and Rohit the one who reminds her and gives her the push that listen just I think you have to do this. Akshay: Huh. Hmm. Yeah. Ananya: And then Priyanka successfully crosses into the threshold of the new world. She enters the world of fashion. That is by going on the lingerie shoot and despite being awkward, despite being scared, doing a banging job. After this you have the test allies and enemies. This is that phase of your film or story where the character is learning who their friends are, who their allies are, what the challenges will be, who's gonna stand in their way, what tests are they gonna face. They're getting a lay of the land of the new world. Over here we see Priyanka getting cast or getting... a contract with a modelling agency, a big modelling agency. She starts meeting Abhijit Sarin, who is the and whatever of Panache, which is the biggest fashion magazine in the country. She gets a lot more modelling gigs. She moves in with her boyfriend, Manav, and she essentially is at the top of her game. And we also establish Kangana Ranaut's character Akshay: Thanks Ananya: more deeply. We do see her initially in the ordinary world as someone Meghna Priyanka's character aspires to, but we get to see more of Kangana or Shonali's role in this film as how she is a model at the top of her career and is now riddled with insecurity and riddled with arrogance, right? And addiction issues, absolutely, yes. And then we have the approach to the innermost cave. Akshay: and addiction issues. Ananya: The approach to the innermost cave is when the character is getting exactly what they want. They are going for it. It's getting your bag of gold which the dragon is guarding. In Priyanka's case, it is being selected as showstopper for the Vinay Khosla show. And then her losing it because she gave her opinions where her opinions weren't asked for. And then Abhijit Sarinth Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: Kangana out of Panache because he's developed ⁓ affinity for Priyanka Chopra's character and Priyanka getting the contract of being the face of Panache and then breaking up with her boyfriend and becoming Abhijit Sarin's side piece. I think that is when she has ⁓ the bag of gold. It is becoming his side piece, right? Akshay: you Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, like she is in now the limelight, like she got what she wanted to. And I think and also one more important thing is that here is now. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: we start seeing a little bit of the cracks she might start facing in the future. So like the moment she breaks up with her boyfriend, that's when she first takes her first cigarette. So again, very tactfully placed because we know like these are the elements. Now the world is sort of consuming her. Ananya: Yeah, absolutely. She is one with the world because she even tells her boyfriend that you don't understand what I'm going through because we're not in the same league. Akshay: Yeah. same league yeah so she has started to talk the language people were talking to her and so i think that's this approach to innermost cave lands perfectly here because she is we start to see her lose who the naive Priyanka Chopra was like the naive Meghna ⁓ Ananya: Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, we see her kind of get more deals, become the face of Jimmy Choo and Sunsilk and every brand that wanted a brand placement in the film. And then we finally have our ordeal. The ordeal is where your character who has taken the bag of gold from the dragon now has to deal with the dragon coming after them and chasing them. Over here, is Priyanka getting pregnant. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: and her realising that she has no autonomy, no control over her body, that Abhijeet Sarin the owner of Panache, whose baby she is carrying, literally has no f**ks to give. And she gets angry, she drinks and drives and she even reveals to Abhishek's wife, Abhijeet Abhishek, I don't know what his name is, Arbaaz Khan's character, that her husband was sleeping with her. This leads to her complete downfall where she is removed from the face of Panache. She goes wildly into drugs and she sleeps with a stranger which is somehow the pinnacle of terrible in this. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: But after she sleeps with the stranger, she decides that, my God, I have like screwed up and she goes back home where she is a shell of her former self with her parents. And she does, she goes to therapy, she gets psychiatric treatment. And then you have the reward, which is when your character gets a brief moment of alone time with their bag of gold. They're not being chased by anyone. They feel like the dragon has been caged. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: This is when her father comes up to her and says, look, it's not like I don't believe in you. You need to go back to Bombay. You need to right your wrongs and you need to pursue your dreams. That is the moment where she's like, am, how would you phrase it? What did that moment do for her? Akshay: It gave her the push which she never had earlier, right? Like, so this is a new sort of confidence which she didn't have in her journey the first time. Now she knows no matter what, at least her family is with her fully. Yeah. Ananya: Yeah, I think She realises that she has the right people in her life. So is Akshay: life yeah Ananya: Her dad gave her the confidence that, I'm here for you. I have your back. So go out there. So she has more ability to do things on her terms because she doesn't feel like... ⁓ Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. Ananya: If I don't do this, I'm screwed. No one can take her for a ride now because she has a safety net. Akshay: Yeah. Also she- was somebody before this so there's also that difference like the first time she was coming from absolutely no experience no clout no standing at all she will do whatever it takes but now she has a more stronger of self that okay I don't need to do so much you know and now she doesn't have to struggle finding allies and people she already Ananya: Yeah. Yeah, I've done it once and I can do it again. Akshay: that when she comes back. She has to right her wrongs but she still has a very strong group immediately. ⁓ Like... yeah. Ananya: Yeah, she has to right her wrongs because immediately yeah yeah which is the way back right the way back is the hero going back into their old world and fighting the last of the demons and ⁓ here in mumbai the first thing she does is rights wrong Janet her first ally and she says i'm sorry about everything that went Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: down between us because of my arrogance she makes amends she tries to reach out to her old modeling agency but everyone ignores her She is walking her way back where her old friend Rohit says that you can model in my show again and she is scared but everyone tells her she can do it. So she goes, she models but she freezes ⁓ the ramp. She is unable to deal with the cameras on her, the eyes on her and just all the trauma of being back into that world. At this point she is at her lowest. Which takes us into the resurrection piece. I believe over here resurrection is not a moment but it is a sequence of events, right? We have ⁓ Kangana, her character Shonali who is now a drug addict, on the streets who Priyanka Chopra finds and decides to take under her wing and help her Akshay: Hmm, yeah. Ananya: just become a person again, become whole again, become normal and undo her addiction. And in helping her do this also gets the show stopper gig at her old friend and designer Rahul Arora's show. But just as it's time, it's the day of the show, ⁓ Kangana goes missing. And everyone's looking for her, Priyanka is in a tizzy. And just as she's about to go walk the ramp for her show stopper gig, She gets a call that Kangana's body has been found and she is dead. Now Priyanka is frozen, will she make it, will she not? The lights go on, she steps out and she does the walk of her lifetime. And that is her completing her resurrection, coming back to life, owning the spotlight. And then we have the return with the elixir, which is where the character is in the old world so as to say, but they are a new person. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: So over here she is now an international supermodel, she's got gigs all over the world but she is the person that she always used to be. Dependable, nice and not an asshole. Right? Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Correct. Very clear hero's journey this film has unlike some of others. Ananya: very clear, unlike some of the others. let's get into theme next. What's Theme is the dramatic question you're asking as an artist in your film. As an artist, you always have a point of view, a statement that you want to make through your story. And your theme is how you do it. You do it by asking a question. And this film asks the question, can you become successful without losing yourself in the process? Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: And in order to prove your point, your character, your main character, your protagonist has to achieve a result which answers this question. In this case, we have Priyanka Chopra's character who does go on a journey of completely losing herself in her quest for success, but then is ultimately able to become successful. But I think there's something important to note here that while the dramatic question is answered by saying that yes you can, it has a nuance to it. And it is yes only if you have the right support system around you at the right time. And that is what movie does differently in terms of theme and nuance. And how do they make this happen? How can you give such a specific answer to your question, which is just not yes or no? It is by having Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: a mirror character which they have in Shonali that's Kangana Ranaut's character. Kangana Ranaut is the supermodel who's made it and she's lost herself in the process completely. And the main difference between her and Priyanka is that when Kangana meets her downfall she doesn't have a strong support system to go home to. She has a horrible boyfriend, yeah she has nobody, she has a horrible boyfriend who's always abusing her and she's left to her own devices. She's lonely. Akshay: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, she has no body. Ananya: But when Priyanka fails, she can go back home to her family. And when she comes back to Bombay too, she also has friends who take her in despite everything that she said and done to them. And this changes Priyanka because when she sees Kangana on the road as a drug addict, homeless, she takes her in because she realises what good support did for her. And now she wants to do it for Kangana and save her. Akshay: hood. Ananya: But this is where the second element comes out, which is the right people at the right time. Priyanka found them almost immediately. She had family to go back to. Kangana did not. So by the time Priyanka found her and took her under her wing, she was too far gone. Yeah, that is why she dies at the end of the film. So this is the technique of using. Akshay: was too late. Ananya: a mirror character to create nuance in answering the thematic or dramatic questions that you are posing to your audience. Akshay: Hmm. Yeah, I had noted this as a character thing for Shonali's character that she's a proper mirror character for Meghana because you know, it's never it's also interesting how they have posed the same thing twice a little bit like for example, you see Meghana get getting the face of the panache deal but at the same time you also see Sonali losing that and you are not manipulating the audience into feeling that, ⁓ you're only rooting for Meghana and not rooting for Sonali. In that moment, you feel bad for her also, but in this moment, you feel better for Meghana also. So I thought that mirroring has been done very interestingly and it goes into what you said. It's not, doesn't answer. It gives various answers. Like you choose how you want to like absorb this. Ananya: Hmm you Yeah exactly. Cool. Let's go into world. Akshay: So the world dominates the movie right like you have like scenes and plot lines are derived completely from the world like that is even the romantic subplot is part of the world everything comes from the world every conflict every scene every set piece is derived from the world of the fashion industry so and i thought one thing which they did very interesting is that whenever a new scene is introduced they have tried to do it from a point of view of some other characters so let's say if Meghana Ananya: Mm-hmm. Akshay: had to meet somebody we don't see Meghna going there but we actually start from the other characters point of view and then they see and then we see them see Meghna so while doing that they have also established the world of that second character and what sort of conflicts the fashion world brings into their life so when now okay let me give you some examples that Ananya: Mmm. Hmm. Akshay: We come to know that Meghna is gonna go to a fashion show for the first time. We cut to the designer whose fashion show it is. And we start seeing his world, that he's gay and his mother is asking him to get married. And you follow that thread until Meghna comes to the fashion show. Ananya: fashion. Akshay: Even the second time she meets Manav at the at a hotel not a hotel at a restaurant or something we first clock Manav the boyfriend getting into a casting couch situation and then when he comes out he sees make-knots so I thought that is done very intentionally because the filmmaker wants to throw light on the world of the film rather than the character Ananya: Wow, we are very well spotted. I didn't notice this at all. Akshay: Yeah and and like even now take it one step further you see that when Meghna is back in town after like going back to Chandigarh when she's had her downfall you only see her once making up with Janet. The fact that she messages Anisha, the Profiles agency owner or the Vinay Khosla, the designer, it comes from their point of view. Like they are having a dinner table situation and they get messages from her. So you also understand the duality in their character now. Again, a very important telling of the world. So thought they did that very intentionally. And again, all the set Ananya: Yeah. Hmm. Akshay: pieces came from the world whether it's the first fashion show she goes to, the first eye candy party, the first photo shoot she has, the first ram fox she has, all of it and one thing I noted like the first because the world is so important in the film the first credit slates in the film are of like the hair and makeup teams, the fashion designers and the ramp choreographers which I thought was damn cool Ananya: Yeah, it was very cool. And that also ties into the tone of the film, I think, where ⁓ the opening credits, the visuals are very voyeuristic, if you see in the sense, it's like you're getting a look at the behind the scenes, scenes which you wouldn't have as an ordinary person, like we are not let in backstage, right? We don't know what's going on there. And they show it to you. And I thought that was great symbolism and ⁓ Akshay: Hmm ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: both symbolism and tone of what we are going to see in this movie, which is the behind the scenes of the fashion industry. They going to drop the curtain, right? And that was a symbol of that as well as a great tonal choice. Akshay: Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, I thought so too. It immediately doesn't waste time at all. Like, you know, like it just gets right into the film. Ananya: ⁓ For sure. Yeah, even Priyanka Chopra's first scene is her arguing with her parents and saying that I'm going to Bombay and I'm gonna be a supermodel. Like that's it. We don't waste any time establishing Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, ⁓ Ananya: So they want to get you into the world of fashion from the get-go. Akshay: Yeah, yeah, Again, I think sometimes it does a little harm to the film also because it's like the entire fashion world spectrum is put in and now you show everything. It's not chosen. It's now it's almost a little too much, you know. Ananya: Uh-huh. Hmm. Akshay: And it doesn't do justice to, I feel, the main protagonist. Like, I still don't know lot about Meghana as a person. Right? Because so much time is spent on just her navigating this world. You know, like, there is no sense of what are the things she stands for, doesn't stand for, outside of her world. You know, like, there is nothing. Like, she doesn't seem like a fully formed person. Like, she is a fully formed Ananya: you Akshay: person in this world but like even when she goes back to Chandigarh we see ⁓ like she had no friends no life nothing you know ⁓ and Ananya: Yeah. Hahaha Akshay: So that is something which is a little bit dangerous when you put the world so much into the film. But again, I think this is a tonal choice, right? Like... Yeah. Ananya: Yeah, it's a filmmaker's choice that my character only exists in this world and this is the world I want to explore. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: Okay, so let's get into symbolism next. Akshay: Sure. Ananya: Cool, one symbol which they've used very obviously is that of wine and cigarette. works in two ways in terms of one, showing us Meghna's innocence and B, in showing us the problem of addiction. Which is where we have Meghna who comes into this new world and she's a non-drinker, a non-smoker, she's offered wine, she doesn't take it. But as she crosses into the new world, she's first offered a glass of wine by Abhishek, by Sarin, the owner of Panache. She doesn't like it, but at least she's honest about it. Then we see her building an affinity towards it as she gets more and more comfortable in the world. She gets comfortable with those tastes. So much so that when she breaks up with her boyfriend, Manav, she downs a glass of, I think, champagne and Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: as you said she smokes a cigarette, for the first time. And this also I feel like symbolizes addiction power. So not just her innocence weaning away but that she is developing an addiction. ⁓ this goes on obviously to build where she even does drugs which is ⁓ addiction or no men, men are the ultimate addiction because she sleeps with her rando. Akshay: first time yeah Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: I still can't get over that. They could have left it at drugs. But... And a black dude. They were racist also. Akshay: Yeah, no, they had to... They They were racist, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the filmmaker once tried to like give justification that in 2008, 2009, there were a lot of these like black dudes which came into Mumbai to like whatever, to like a lot of like smuggling, etc. was happening. So as for him, he thought it was apt to the world of the film. But yeah, it is racist. It's fully racist. Ananya: And then ultimately when she is back after having ⁓ spent time back home, back in the old world, she refuses wine again. So I thought that symbolism was very cleverly, if a little on the nose. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, works. I think for a mainstream commercial film, this works because so much of the film is so internalized, you know, like, it's so visual, like, there are no big heavy chunks of dialogue we see which are like, Guru or English Vinglish, there is literally no monologue in the film. Like, all so small dialogues, such internal work that some on-the-nose things, like, you have to, like, have it. Ananya: Yeah, you're right. It was a replacement for dialogue in many ways. Akshay: Yeah, yeah, correct. Ananya: What do you want to get into next? Akshay: Scenes and sequences. Ananya: Vamos. Akshay: Okay, so again, one of the things we spoke about in say English Vinglish and Paan Singh Tomar is the introduction shot of characters. like we do a slow reveal, we start with hands, face, eyes, etc, etc. But those things work when the visuals are not. Like when the introduction shot is not a very cool visual. Like in English Vinglish she was in the kitchen. sweet. In Paan Singh Tomar he was at a terrace. Again, basic. Here, when we introduce Shonali Gujral, there is no hype about her in the past. Like we don't know anything. We've just one passing mention of her that, the showstopper for your... this thing. But immediately, she makes an entry and that is it. So, ⁓ she's on the ramp, there cameras, it's glitz, glamour, she looks amazing, there's great music. It's a very cool entry shot. So don't waste time on paper. Let... Ananya: Mm-hmm. Akshay: the mechanics of the direction take over that. So I thought that was interesting as a difference from the previous films we did. Then, ⁓ now this is something which ⁓ is particular about this like. ⁓ this kind of film like this like this is separate genre of its own right like the fashion film industry world or something you know like specific to one industry film like so the idea is that immediately you want the audience to see action so like if it was an action film you would immediately go into an action sequence the fastest you can if it was a murder mystery film you would immediately get into a murder space but now because it's a fashion film I think made a conscious effort that let's go to the fashion show immediately we can. So within the first 15 minutes there's a big fashion show which opens and that sort of opens the entire world and the landscape of the film to you. So I thought that was very nice and what they've done in this one big sequence is that they've tried to show every possible angle of the fashion show like when it's the audience, like coordinators behind the scenes the ramp walk preparation, the rehearsal because ⁓ all of these things do come in the film at some point or later with our main protagonist. So I thought ⁓ that was an interesting, very well thought out and placed like intentional sequence. Ananya: Definitely. And I remember whenever I've written a party scene, one thing we always do is when you have these big set pieces is juice them out, where you have all your characters together. And that's what this fashion show does, right? Essentially, it has every character who's part of the world at the show. So you get to experience many different equations, set them up. So I think another piece of advice here would be that when you have Akshay: Huh. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: big scenes like this in terms of number of people, use them to take as many storylines forward or to establish as many storylines as you need. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Yeah and I think again they have done this with the use of the genre trope of that introduction. somebody is giving, you know? like ⁓ her friend Rohit ⁓ has been here and done this for a lot, he takes her through everybody. This person is this, ⁓ that person is the owner of this company, this. So you know who's who ⁓ and you these might be the potential characters your protagonist is gonna face them. So again, it's a very telling of ⁓ the genre and this film, you know? Like you introduce the character to this new world that they are seeing. Ananya: Exactly, and you introduce the audience to it too. And they've even taken it one step further by doing it through conflict. So it's not just that he doesn't tell her, for example, that it's really hard to get like an audition or to get cast. We see her go for the audition, which is where we A, get to explore the world. And then we get to see that she hasn't gotten a callback yet. Akshay: Yeah, yeah. Hmm. Hmm. ⁓ Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: So it's coming through conflict. Then she's like, arey yaar, why is no one like, bula kyun nahi raha hai? Instead they could have said it easily that, ⁓ you'll be like, ⁓ it's very hard over here. But they showed it through conflict. So exposition given through conflict and through a new character. Akshay: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah, correct. I thought there was one more moment in the film which that this is nothing to do with film but again it's a technique where you have to not waste time for your audience like don't give double information triple information it you have to just move on fast so I thought that after the lingerie shoot Janet tells that ⁓ you have a portfolio tomorrow know all the best So I thought there was two things here first of all the information had to be given to the audience again that okay this separate one-off Shoot was done, but the aim of the shoot was because it leads to the bigger portfolio shoot so that was number one and we Like also had to move there like that. I was transitioned for the next scene right now a lot of the streamers today don't like this that yeah because we doing second screen viewing so they are like how does Janet know about this I think we should add the scene of Meghna telling Janet ⁓ I have a photo shoot hence I booked this gig so that I can pay for this but Ananya: Yeah, because we're all on our phones. Akshay: It's boring. It's so boring because the audience already knows this information. So I thought this was very very smart that it's implied, you like she might have told off-screen like it's not a big big deal for Janet to know that ⁓ this is not the case. If a piece of information is not going to have an impact on a character... Ananya: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Akshay: Don't make that scene of telling that information to that character. It's just redundant. So... Ananya: Absolutely. If it's not taking the story forward, don't put it in there and by story forward we don't mean transition to the next scene. We mean like this happens because this happens a character takes an action. It has to have cause and effect. Akshay: yeah yeah don't Yeah. Huh, huh, yeah. Yeah. Should I go on and have a few more? ⁓ We've never seen Meghna's character to be very... Ananya: Yeah, please go on. Akshay: smooth talker. Like she is a little nervous, she is just in her lane, she doesn't have big like words, so she doesn't have that unnecessary charm. But the first time she goes to meet Profiles Agency's owner, Anisha, that interview, somehow her character steps up. So when she's asked, oh, I'm a model and she says, no, supermodel. And then again she's asked, 200 girls here come to Mumbai every day to be models. And she's like, but how many get the opportunity to work with you? This is something we've never seen her do before, throughout the film. I thought it was interesting because now you are putting your character Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: in an elevated world of the existing world. Right? Like so far she was getting struggling gigs, she was getting small timey gigs. But now you know that she's up against the big players and as a character she will also have to bring in a little bit more of her. So a muscle which we haven't seen a character pull, we see that now happening. So I thought that was interesting because you have to up the ante, like your character can't stay the same. Ananya: Hmm. Yeah, absolutely. I just think I noted that too what you said, but I think it came unprovoked. Akshay: Huh, yeah. little bit yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Ananya: right? Because I was surprised. I'm like yeh kaan se itna like badadani lagge. Right? So I feel like that scene could have been crafted in such a way that the woman is almost like questioning her and Priyanka is forced to pull this side out of her and even she is surprised to discover that she has this side of her. Like it needed a little more motivation. Here they just said, okay, you're stepping into the identity of a supermodel now. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah correct Yeah, correct. Ananya: But she hadn't claimed that identity before. So I think it could have used a little more fire under her ass for her to get up and running like. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like maybe like just one, even if one small moment of her feeling a little like hyping herself up or like, like, like making herself realize that this is a big deal, you know, so like that would have been fine. But I guess again, like these are over explanations which might fall into a trap of so sometimes you to like do what, how much to put, how much to not, you know, like Ananya: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah Akshay: Then... the first time she does a ramp walk, ⁓ it could have been a little bland, where, like, you know, if it was just why she's taking it all in, it's all hunky-dory, everything could have been great. ⁓ But, don't do that. They keep... her and the audience engaged is that she's constantly observing Sonali. So she's looking at her, she has like always like even when she's clapping she's looking at her because two things, she's observing how this big supermodel behaves somebody who she wants to be and it again Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: it adds conflict to a scene a little bit like she wants this but can't get it right now so I thought even in a bland plain scene you can like increase the conflict engagement ⁓ with by creating moments like these and these looks of yearning and desire have to be written on paper Ananya: Yeah. engagement yeah by creating conflict Akshay: you can't wing it on set. Like these are character moments. These are like sort of also ⁓ brings and brings empathy for her. ⁓ Because you, you like people like, know, aspiring on screen, like, you know, so that was interesting. I want quickly talk about moral choice where Ananya: Mm-hmm. Exactly. Akshay: Moral choice is that a moment where a character is put into the position that should he take the step either for his more selfish reasons or he should do what is expected of him or her as an from the audience, you know? So in this moment when she's come back from Chandigarh her friend Rahul offers her a show as a showstopper and Ideally, she could have been like, it's a great option opportunity for her right? Like the old Meghna would have lapped up at it. But now she's like she screwed one fashion show already for one friend. She's like, I can't do that to you again. So I thought that was a very interesting stand she took after like probably for the first time. Ananya: Yeah. But in fact, she does take a stand earlier too, where, negatively, Kangana Ranath's top falls off and there's media questioning and they ask her, what do you think happened? And she's like, I don't know, it could be a publicity stunt. So they, absolutely. Akshay: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, what a bitchy thing was that? Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: And that shows us her character there, right? It's like Dumbledore saying, doing what is easy or what is right. And ⁓ over there, she did what was easy. But later on, when she, in the scene you just described, she did what was right. And that is your moral choice at the end of the day, right? Doing what is easy or doing what is right. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right correct. I thought there were a lot like callbacks which they like... use in the film so callbacks like we what just happened like callbacks like you established in the previous episodes is that they establish how the nature of a relationship has either changed or not changed so Ananya: You Akshay: One moment I thought was when it's Priyanka Chopra's first fashion show and Kangana Ranaut is getting her makeup done and she's like, she says, I'm the showstopper here. And it comes in later when Meghna is the showstopper and Kangana is like the junior model in that. She says it back. Remember, I'm the showstopper. So I thought that was interesting. Now here the relationship of the characters have changed. We were like, the hierarchy is completely shifted. They do it once again. ⁓ Ananya: Bye. Yeah. Akshay: with this was the first time Meghna was supposed to be a showstopper and she wears this Vinay Khosla dress which is like and she drapes it a different way and that becomes a reason she gets fired because she showed her opinions and later on when she's having a photo shoot with the same designer she says I was thinking I'll hold the drape this way because I know how you're particular about these drapes so again there is a shift in these dynamic again the hierarchy is completely changed Ananya: And adding on to callbacks, there's mirror scenes too, where we have characters in one situation where they act a certain way and in a similar situation where they act a different way and you see how they have changed. So for example, when in the start of the film, Priyanka goes to an expensive restaurant and she says, how will we even pay for this? ⁓ And Rohit says, no, foreign client, they'll pay for it. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: And then the next time they're at a fancy restaurant, she's saying, I will get the check. Which shows that she has now had enough of a status increase in the world to be able to pay for this. So she has up-leveled. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Ananya: Another scene I really liked was the foreshadowing. Where foreshadowing is a technique where you show your characters, where you give a sense to your audience, you show shadow of what your character is going to turn into essentially. So this happens when Meghna is sitting in the car and with Anisha, her modelling agency head and they're talking about her future and Meghna says I know exactly who I want to be. Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: and she pulls out a magazine with Shonali's photo on it, copy of Vogue with Shonali's photo on it. And then we cut to Shonali, who is literally like doing drugs, being like kicked around by her boyfriend, the most insecure state of her life. So when Meghna says, that's who I want to be, later on she does become that person very briefly, very insecure, doing drugs. So that was a very clever foreshadowing done on part of the film maker. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: Then another thing of tension which I thought they did really well. Tension and misdirection. Where misdirection is when you assume the scene is going to go one way but it goes another way but that is also rooted in logic. So this is Priyanka's first show as a show stopper. And Kangana is watching as a normal model. And as Priyanka goes and stands the limelight Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: you see a look on Kangana's face which is almost like I want to steal her thunder. And then as Priyanka turns and Kangana comes to walk her top falls off. And then in the other audience is wondering did she do this on purpose because we know that Kangana is an insecure attention whore who'll do anything. And then she walks back into like the dressing room the silence and so you're building tension tension what's going to happen now and then she bursts into tears. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: and you realise that this was not done on purpose. So I think they've done two things very well. The misdirection of giving the look which is true to the time. She is looking at her like, fuck you, I hate you, which she would do. It's true to the character. And the tension of delaying the information to the audience. Two techniques very well used to create engagement and conflict. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. ⁓ Hmm. Very nice. Ananya: Do we want to go into character creation next? Akshay: Sure. Ananya: So I think Meghna's characters is worth discussing because they've really had to set her up as someone we root for and like up top so that we are there for the journey even when she starts becoming arrogant. It's like that friend of yours who you know has become a bit of an asshole but you have good memories with so you're still friends with them, right? they've done that with making her one extremely innocent. She has no malice. Akshay: Huh. Huh. Ananya: Like she points and talks about people without realising what she's doing wrong. There's a lot of innocence there, naivete, which we appreciate in a character because we feel like they will do no harm. Two, she has big dreams. She's ambitious. She wants to become a model. We appreciate that. Three, she believes in herself. She fights for her dream. She leaves her home despite the risks and goes to Bombay. And four, Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: She does the hard work. She goes for the auditions. She does what's asked of her. She hustles. We like characters who believe in themselves, who hustle because we want to be like that. So I think they've done a very good job at building a lot of empathy for her. Next, I want to talk about a technique called a mask in character building, which is when a character possesses a trait which Akshay: Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: they don't want to show in public and they overcompensate for that by showing the opposite of that trait. And we see this in Shonali's character where we see her with her boyfriend and we see her behind the scenes in her life where she's not a model and she's extremely insecure as a human being. She's like, my boyfriend will leave me, they'll fire me. She's very insecure. What is the opposite of insecurity? Arrogance. They're two sides of the same coin. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: In order to mask that insecurity so that no one can guess that she's insecure. She overcompensates everywhere else by saying like, fuck you, I'm the best. So that is the mask of insecurity that she's wearing and the ⁓ mask of arrogance and the mask falls off. It's not a character can keep on for too long, but it's a coping and compensating mechanism. until they can not keep it on any longer. And another technique I wanted to talk about was understanding the status of your characters in the world. And I want to do it through the lens of Abhijit Sarin, who is a villain in this story. He is the owner of Panache. He's calling all the shots. But when we think of a villain character, we think of them as, you know, being power hungry and doing what it takes to like fuck people over, to make more money, all of that. But Akshay: Hmm. Yeah. Ananya: Abhijit Saran is not this person. He is extremely calm and composed. He is not sleazy. He never hits on Priyanka in a cheap way. He admires her ambition. And when she tells him that she's pregnant, he's like, cool, whatever. For him, it's like, you know, sidebar. He's not even paying attention. And why do we have a character who reacts like this, who is so composed? It is a character who is very well aware of his status in the film. He knows that he is the most powerful person and when you are that powerful, there is no reason to throw a tantrum. You will do this and a person will go away from your life. He is never insecure. And that I think is very important to know when writing because it determines your character's actions. Do they have something to lose? Abhijeet Sarin never had anything to lose. Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: So he never threw a tantrum. But Priyanka, who had something to lose, being the face of Parnash, overreacts, is a drama queen, drinks and drives, all of that. So a character behaves from what their status is in their world and it's important to locate their place in the hierarchy of the film. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Hmm it becomes so important in creation of the character know like like just the way they'll speak what they'll sound like and Like what will their dialogues be like it all adds so much. Yeah Ananya: Yeah, definitely. Especially dialogues and persona, body language. And I'm sure it helps the actor a lot too to know this. Akshay: Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. Yeah Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: This, I think when we were doing English to English, we spoke about the Bechdel test. Just to recap for our audience what the Bechtel test is, is that the film needs to have at least one scene which has two female characters who have a name. They're not named ⁓ Waitress 1, Waitress 2, no. ⁓ No, they need to have a and talking to each other. Ananya: Hmm. You Akshay: And they should be talking to each other about anything but a man and again very few movies cross this test. This one does multiple There are ⁓ so scenes about just like it's about say Janet and Meghna and Meghna and Anisha ⁓ and Meghna and Shonali like they're not about a man. So I thought they did that very well in this film that this they specifically focused on these female equations and female ambitions and Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: female support with each other. I thought that was done very nicely. Ananya: Very well done. Cool, so that's all I have on fashion. ⁓ Akshay: Yeah, me too. Ananya: Well, thank you guys for watching yet another episode of the Breakdown Besties podcast. And please let us know what films you'd like us to do next. Leave it down in the comments and we will get back to you. Hit like, hit share, hit subscribe, tell your friends about it. And we will see you next Thursday on another episode of the Breakdown Besties podcast. Bye. Akshay: Bye bye.