Gajra Kottary’s latest novel Once Upon A Star is about a celebrity couple dealing with love and betrayal. The author tellsKaran Bhardwaj that she is inspired by the life and struggle of Boney Kapoor’s first wife Mona Shourie Kapoor
Gajra Kottary’s latest novel Once Upon A Star is nothing short of a perfect Bollywood script. There’s a filmy couple — the lady dedicates her life to family post marriage and years later, wakes up to her hubby’s affair with another female superstar. However, this piece of fiction is not entirely a product of imagination. Remember Mona Shourie Kapoor, the first wife of producer Boney KapoorIJ Kottary’s novel loosely reflects the life and struggle of Mona, how she devoted herself to her husband, kids and family and yet failed to save her marriage. “Some story moves you and you get thinking. I have always operated in a realistic zone. Be it my writing for films or serials, I have always kept reality in check. For this novel, I was immensely inspired by Mona’s life and the way she stood up after a deep personal trauma. It was very fascinating for me as a writer. Not just her, there are many women who rediscover their identities after failing in their marriages. Honey Irani became super successful as a screenwriter after she separated from Javed Akhtar,” says the author.
Kottary has left her novel open for interpretation and reviewers are already drawing parallels from the khaandans of Kapoors and Bachchans. “What I have tried to tell is that it is extremely difficult for film personalities to cope with trauma as they are constantly chased by the paparazzi. My mother used to thank God that our life’s dilemmas and sufferings are not discussed in public domain else life would have become so humiliating. In this novel, there’s a ray of hope as the protagonist falls in love again and becomes a successful woman,” the author tells us. She had known Mona as a person but were never friends with her. “Mona got into television so she reached out to me. She appreciated my work and we always discussed careers. I could feel her depth as a human being. She was very dignified and never spoke about her personal life,” she tells us.
Isn’t it fascinating to decode relations of celebrities who spend most of their time in front of mirrors and camerasIJ Kottary says that the biggest challenge for these celebs is to stay in touch with reality.
“It’s tough for them to stay grounded. There is every day stuff that keeps you in touch with reality like window shopping, walking on streets and eating roadside food, gossiping and meeting with new friends. However, known faces cannot indulge in such activities. They are so cut off from reality. More than viewers, who escape to theatre for three hours to live in a fantasy world, it’s actually film stars who live in that fantasy all the time. Of course, it is different in different cases. Some stars make an effort to stay grounded while some don’t,” she says.
Kottary, a former journalist and an award-winning television writer, is uncomfortable in getting labelled as an insider. She insists that she looks at the showbiz from a window where she can retain her objectivity. “If you become an insider, you tend to empathise with people and cannot represent a true picture,” she says. In her career spanning over two decades, she has written for many journals and magazines before switching to television. A major breakthrough came with Zee TV’s Astitva...Ek Prem Kahani. later, she wrote path-breaking shows like Balika Vadhu, Ghar Ek Sapnaa andVeera. However, the scriptwriter is shocked by the mediocrity and deteriorating standards of television.
“In TV, only a handful of people are trying to do sensible and different stuff. A lot of nonsense is being appreciated. Potential writers are succumbing to cliches and following the successful formulas. They are like ‘yeh hi chalta hain to yeh hi karenge’,” she laments. In the recent years, there has been an explosion of channels in TV but Kottary warns of a ‘frightening’ future. “Television is currently confused and messed up. It will take a year or two to sort things out. Since we have too many channels, they are filling up space with anything. But once the audience starts rejecting this clutter, which has already begun, the situation will worsen. Channels and serials will have to shut shop,” she says. The redundancy has not only crippled television but also cinema.
While movies like Dedh Ishqiya, Haider and Ugly failed to entertain masses, horrible slapsticks went on to become blockbusters. Kottary blames the audience for setting the poor trend. “The audience looks for escapism as they don’t want to think while sitting in theatres. So filmmakers are dumping whatever they wish. It’s quite demoralising to find cliches doing wonders at the box office while good cinema is being snubbed. As a result, it is also encouraging young writers to follow commercial route,” she says adding that filmmakers are also acting smart. “If their story doesn’t work, they cut the budget and give that intelligent audience anything to chew on. They don’t want to bring a larger change. But in that process, the essence of good stories is lost. So it’s like a vicious circle. But I would still say that films are not as bad as television since you have multiplexes to show every kind of movie,” she says.
Kottary’s 24-year-old son Advait is also interested in films and is presently giving some auditions. “I advise him to go slow, learn the art and then take off. Potential is different from practice. Though he is qualified — he’s learnt acting from Anupam Kher’s institute — I keep guiding him. Right now, he’s anchoring digital content for one of the channels. He has done a lot of theatre in Bengaluru,” she shares.