MUMBAI: The countdown to Qalam 2003 - the second annual scriptwriter's workshop and forum has begun. After the grand success of Qalam 2001, it is back to score another first by holding "Writers Pitch", a golden opportunity for participants to present their concepts directly to the channel executives and representatives of production houses.
Qalam 2003 will be a comprehensive workshop and will cover everything to do with scriptwriting for television: such as the fundamentals of scriptwriting; the essence of a script's concept, story, screenplay, dialogue and characterisation.
The Indian scriptwriting community and budding aspirants will gather at Time & Again banquet hall in Mumbai's Lokhandwala complex, Andheri, from 9 January to 11 January 2003 .
Qalam 2003 will also have individual instructional sessions on writing for the various genres of television programming such as daily soaps, comedies, thrillers, game shows as well as writing for news.
"For the first time in India, writers - some of them first-timers - will get an opportunity to present their story ideas and concepts to creative professionals from major production houses and television programming executives who will be part of a judging panel at the "Writers' Pitch". It is quite possible that that some of the work may be picked up if the writing measures up to the requisite standards," says Indian Television Dot Com founder and chief executive officer Anil Wanvari.
The cr?me de la cr?me of India's TV scriptwriters will participate in the panel discussions and training sessions over a three-day period. The list includes stalwarts such as : Atul Tiwari, Anurag Kashyap, Ishan Trivedi, Kamlesh Pandey, RD Tailang, Rajesh Joshi, Rekha Nigam, Sanjay Upadhyay, Sanjay Chhel, Shishir Joshi, Sutapa Sikdar, Vinta Nanda and Vinod Ranganath.
The Qalam initiative has got the kudos from senior scriptwriters who are part of the forum-cum workshop. Says Sutapa Sikdar: "Qalam is a very nice platform. It will help writers to actually understand what contemporary writing for television involves."
Ace comedy writer Sanjay Chhel has this to say about the effort in his inimitable style: "Writing is a taxing job. I welcome participants to the heart attack club. I look forward to doing an open heart surgery on scriptwriting at Qalam 2003."
Indiantelevision.com is coordinating its Qalam efforts with leading production houses and television channels. Sony TV has given its consent to be the principal sponsor. The event has also got participation support from UTV, Balaji Telefilms, Cinevistaas, BAG Films, Nimbus, InHouse Productions, Creative Eye, Siddhant Cinevision, Contiloe Films, Firework Productions, Tracinema, TV18. Several programming executives from television channels such as Star, Sony Entertainment, Zee TV, Sahara, B4U, MTV will also be attending Qalam.