How to write a film like 'Jawan'? Think like the masses, says writer S Ramanagirivasan

Shah Rukh Khan in Jawan. Jawan is writer S. Ramanagirivasan's fourth film with director Atlee, after Theri (2016), Mersal (2017) and Bigil (2019). (Screen grab from Jawan trailer/YouTube/Red Chillies Entertainment)

In Jawan, you rush from one highlight to another, each scene unfolding at rapid pace with the single-minded purpose of exalting Shah Rukh Khan’s screen image as a super-heroic figure. The statement of purpose is clear in the first scene itself. When a village in the North-East is under attack, the locals pray to a deity. Immediately, Shah Rukh Khan literally flies into the scene, his gigantic shadow looming over the landscape and touching the deity’s figurine. Successive scenes exist to give Khan similar opportunities to pose in style and kick ass against an operatic rock and hip-hop background score.

How does one write such films?

An attempt to recognize screenwriting as a craft first emerged in the United States after Syd Field, a professional script reader for American studios, saw patterns in successful screenplays and introduced the three-act structure in his 1979 book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. The US has since churned out several how-to books on screenwriting. Thus, we have more maps than we need for Hollywood-style storytelling.

S. Ramanagirivasan (left) with Shah Rukh Khan.

But what about a film like Jawan or any of the films Atlee has directed, which the South has a name for: the ‘mass film’?

The biggest superstars in Tamil cinema (Rajinikanth, Vijay, Ajith Kumar) and Telugu cinema (Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Pawan Kalyan) strengthened and consolidated their foothold on the box office with mass films, wherein an ultra-masculine hero rights all wrongs in society while being a stylish, aspirational figure who is simultaneously virtuous and righteous. Here, every scene, supporting character and second of a film is devoted to punch up the hero’s heroism – and send fans, or the masses (and therefore, a ‘mass film'), into a frenzy in the theatre.

Such films, carefully calibrated to pander to the star’s fanbase, naturally appear formulaic. But how indeed is this formula conceived and executed?

S. Ramangirivasan, co-writer of Jawan, has worked with Atlee on his biggest Tamil-language hits which are some of the most successful mass films of all time: Theri (2016), Mersal (2017) and Bigil (2019). Their fourth collaboration Jawan is slowly inching towards crossing the Rs 1,000-crore mark in gross figures at the global box office. The 51-year-old Chennai-based screenwriter shared his thoughts on writing Jawan, mass films, and his journey with Moneycontrol. Excerpts:

What was your goal with ‘Jawan’?

In our first meeting with Shah Rukh, somewhere in July-August 2019, he was very clear that he wanted an Atlee-style mass film. When we met him, we had the image of his romantic, family film self, the ‘dilwale’. But he wanted a mass film. He said that he had done action films but hadn’t attempted a mass film until then. So we knew our job was to do a Rajini-style film for Shah Rukh Khan.

Mass films usually have one introduction scene of the superstar. Here, you are introducing Shah Rukh Khan with bombast in every scene.

After we had finished Bigil, which had one mass scene after another in the second half, I remember Atlee and I discussed about having up to 20 introduction scenes in one film. We carried that over to Jawan.

In the initial draft, the film was supposed to begin with the metro station scene. So that would be our massy introduction scene. But then as we developed the father character, we considered introducing him first. That gave us another introduction scene. Now, he has to return 25 years later. So, there’s another introduction scene. The intro scenes kept piling up.

Did you always have the idea of Shah Rukh Khan as father and son fighting alongside each other?

No. Initially, the father existed, but after he died, he was no more. The son was pretending to be the father and taking revenge. But once we worked on the get-ups for young Shah Rukh’s disguise as his father, we got such a thrilling response from the team that we thought of making the father return. Shah Rukh worked a lot on the father’s speech, gait, attitude. People have seen the young version a lot. But the older version was a novelty.

For a mass film, you have to work completely for the superstar. You have to see what has worked for him in the past, get the essence of it, and then punch it up a few levels... A mass film is entirely for the fanbase.

We can always have a longer version of a story where you are fleshing out each and every emotional strand. But to fit it all into 2 hours and 40 minutes, we have to cut down that extra meat. So then everything follows in high speed.

Now, we have OTTs and other mediums for longer or traditionally timed storytelling. But for theatre audience and mass heroes, we need to keep in mind the people coming in to watch a film. We need to think of scenes that will work with crowds in a theatre. You start thinking of each and every scene like that. You think, a fan has entered the theatre and has to be kept there till the end. So how do you engage him?

Critics and cinema-literate viewers who are not necessarily in thrall of the superstar will say a mass film has a weak story. Your response?

With any film that is not a mass film, you work on the full story and then you find the actor who will fit into that role. For a mass film, you have to work completely for the superstar. You have to see what has worked for him in the past, get the essence of it, and then punch it up a few levels. Few moments and emotions always work with a superstar (Shah Rukh Khan spreading hands; Salman Khan opening shirt; Vijay raising hands, doing a namaskar, and assuring a crowd). The film will be built around these evergreen visual ideas. A mass film is entirely for the fanbase.

How did your collaboration with Atlee begin?

Throughout school in Tiruchendur, where I grew up, I participated in art and cultural activities. Between 1992 and 1995, I studied for a diploma in film direction and screenwriting at the MGR Film and Television Institute in Chennai. I soon moved to television and worked on many television shows at the Tamil television channel Star Vijay.

Atlee’s first film Raja Rani was produced by Fox Star Studios. So he would come to the channel building a lot. It was Star Vijay Vice-President R. Mahendran who introduced me to Atlee. That’s how our relationship started.

While writing a film, Atlee and I discuss a lot, right from the release of a film to the time the next one goes on floors. We build the film portion-by-portion. We order the mass scenes. Then, we fill the missing places. Jawan was written in five to six months.

What makes Atlee so consistently successful in the ‘mass film’ space? He is not the first or the only person to make mass films.

He tries to exploit the hero as much as possible. He sees each scene from the point of view of the masses, how each scene will be received in a theatre.

South-Indian mass films have been successful at the Hindi box-office. Not so much the other way round. Don’t Southern audiences like Hindi films?

Until Baahubali, Tamil-dubbed Telugu films rarely worked in Tamil Nadu. Kerala and Tamil Nadu are two states that are very loyal to their own industries. It took Baahubali to break the Telugu-Tamil barrier here.

Similarly, it is only a matter of time before a Hindi film breaks that ground down South. Telugu audiences are more open to Hindi films. I hope Jawan has broken that barrier for Hindi films here.