“I Don’t Write Stories, I Steal Them”, Says Baahubali & RRR writer V Vijayendra Prasad

Notable filmmaker and screenwriter V Vijayendra Prasad, who is known for his projects like Baahubali, RRR, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and Magadheera, made some interesting claims.

Baahubali writer

V Vijayendra Prasad was among the personalities from the Indian film industry who received honors during the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI). In addition, he held a workshop on the margins of the event titled “The Master’s Writing Process.” In the workshop, he spoke with aspiring filmmakers and presented tips on how he writes for movies.

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Speaking about how he began his journey, he said, “I did everything possible to earn a living including agriculture before becoming a writer. The writing came much later in life.” He says he looks up to former writer duo Salim-Javed and still watches their 1975 masterpiece “Sholay” to get over a creative block. In the late ’80s, Prasad came across Ramesh Sippy’s “Sholay”, penned by Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar.

Since then, the Hindi action drama has acted as a reference book for scriptwriting for him. “I’m a big fan of Salim-Javed. I saw ‘Sholay’. I borrowed cassettes and saw the movie again and again. I learned how they wrote the characters and interconnected them with emotions… Even today, when I write and face a creative block, I just watch two-three scenes from ‘Sholay’,” he added.

Screenwriting style

While talking about his screenwriting style, V Vijayendra Prasad said, he always thinks of a twist at the interval and manages the story accordingly. “You have to create something out of nothing. You have to present a lie, which looks like the truth. A person who can tell a good lie can be a good storyteller”, he added.

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“I don’t write stories, I steal them. Stories are there around you, be it epics like Mahabharat, Ramayan, or real-life incidents, there are stories everywhere. You need to represent it in your unique style,” he said during his workshop session.

Responding to the question of a newborn story writer, Vijayendra said, one has to open up his or her mind and soak everything. “You need to be your own fiercest critic, then only your best will come out and you can take your work to unscalable heights”, he asserted. Calling himself a “successful failure”, the writer said he has tried his hand at many things before making a mark in the film industry. “I’ve been a successful failure at so many things before I started writing. I did agriculture, fertilizer business, and I started a factory but it didn’t work,” he said.

 

Sharing his experience of writing for the blockbusters like Baahubali and RRR, Shri Prasad said, “I don’t write, I dictate stories. I have everything in my mind; the flow of the story, the characters, the twists”. He said, one good writer should cater to the needs of the Director, Producer, Primary Protagonist, and Audience. Vijayendra Prasad is currently working on the story for the sequel to the global blockbuster ‘RRR’.

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