My intention was not to hurt anyone'

Author and screenwriter Kanika Dhillon has to her credit films like Ra.One and the Telugu-Tamil bilingual comedy Size Zero, but none of her works have won her as much acclaim as her latest release — Manmarziyaan. The film has also brought her notoriety in equal measure for “hurting the religious sentiments” of the Sikh community. The writer now opens up about her take on the controversy, and her experience writing the film.

“Writing the film was liberating. A lot of effort went into writing the characters and bringing them to life on screen. The intention was to depict the fickleness and unease that surrounds romantic relationships. I’m glad that the audience has been very appreciative of it,” Kanika says.

The writer, who took nearly two years to pen the complicated love story, says that she wanted her characters to be as genuine and raw as possible. But that very same rawness seems to have resulted in controversy.

“I was flabbergasted; it is very disturbing and upsetting,” she says, adding, “I don’t think a woman’s state of mind should hurt the sentiments of a religious group just because she is in a holy place. I strongly believe that artistic expression is meant to be challenging and thought-provoking.  As a daughter of Punjab, I have grown up in the land of revolutionary poets who were loved and revered. My characters are unapologetic and are deeply-rooted in the region because I wanted to return to my origins to tell this story.”

She reveals that the entire Manmarziyaan team had a hard time dealing with the backlash over minor details. “As a writer, my intention was to bring out the right emotion and not to hurt anyone. I was only trying to explore a woman’s heart and her choices given the circumstances, but things went haywire,” she says.

She also believes that the chopping of scenes in response to a few people’s outrage was unfair. “I’m afraid the narrative will be the biggest loser. The abrupt cutting of scenes will affect the flow of the film, which may make it perplexing for the audience,” Kanika says.

She adds that as a writer, what she fears most is her imagination being curtailed. “Such controversies will only make writers more apprehensive about expressing their intentions in the form of art. A writer should not succumb to such fears while exploring possibilities,” she says.

Interestingly, Kanika’s father-in-law Raghavendra Rao is a legendary Telugu filmmaker, but she has extensively showed an inclination towards scripts in Hindi. Ask her if it’s a conscious choice to pursue a career in Bollywood, and she says, “Writing is all about creativity, it doesn’t have a language barrier.”

Her forthcoming projects include a collaboration with her husband titled Mental Hai Kya and Kedarnath. “Both films have different genres — Mental Hai Kya is a psychological thriller while Kedarnath is about the floods that ravaged the region in 2013. As a writer, the challenge is to dream big but yet remain rooted so that the audience can connect with the script,” she concludes.