MUMBAI: Neerja writer Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh in conversation with the audiences at The Content Hub 2020 shared some interesting insights from her movie. “All stories come from life experiences. My film Bobby Jasoos was inspired by the family I am married into. The only part is to make it fictional. The major challenge I faced in Neerja was to bring the spirit into a character. Shabana Azmi's character was completely inspired by Neerja's mother. The structuring of this movie was very different,” says Shaikh.

Shaikh, who never aspired to be a scriptwriter, has given audiences some wonderful movies like Bobby Jasoos and Neerja. She feels digital writing is liberating; you can get into things that are interesting. She, however, found writing dialogues for Delhi Crime very weird as one cannot write dialogues based on real testimonies.

Shaikh also believes that scripts should be read by the director, writer and the actors. It helps in better functionality. Asked about having the ownership while working with a director, she said, “Films are at the director’s mercy; he has the complete ownership and cast and crew need to have a trust upon him. If you disagree with a certain plot, there is always an option to narrate your story to some other director.”