Let's remember Shiv Kumar Subramaniam as a fine writer of seminal cinema, rather than just 'that 2 States actor'

A few years ago as part of a roundtable, screenwriter and poet Varun Grover spoke about the downsizing of writers in the Hindi film industry. “It’s not an industry-specific issue, but a cultural issue. We don’t value writers as a culture. Even writers who are read to some extent, perhaps do not enjoy the respect or stardom that an actor gets. Ram, for example, is a bigger hero than Valmiki,” he says, passionately.

As news circulated this morning of Shiv Kumar Subramaniam’s death, and condolence messages poured in on social media, mainstream media buckled under the pressure of SEO diktats to reduce Subramaniam’s life to that of a co-star. The man who wrote films as radical as Parinda (1989), Iss Raat Ki Subah Nahin (1996), and Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2005) reduced to the actor from 2 States (2014), confirming that even mediums that deal with the written word – aka publications – can find it in themselves to belittle writers.

Not too long ago, the death of playwright Girish Karnad evoked eulogies that were also preceded by Tiger Zinda Hai references. In most cases, it is obviously an SEO flex that drives such headlines because even death ought to pull in traffic after all. But in other cases, such hastily referenced lives exemplify what is more of a cultural symptom than an industry-specific one.

Recently, renowned Hindi novelist Vinod Kumar Shukla revealed galling details about the pittance he has been paid over the years by his publisher for some truly landmark novels, including the classic Deewar Mein Ek Khidki Rehti Thi. But no social media trends, rant or water-cooler conversations have erupted over this humbling revelation. If crisis and controversy are all that are needed to draw attention, Shukla’s story, his pedigree included, had it all, and yet there is a distinctive lack of interest in the plight of a literary veteran. Not only has the story not made news, it has hardly been quibbled over the way rider bonuses and workplace incentives are on Linkedin.  

Writing is not only burdensome as a profession but also as a commodity. It requires commitment, time, and foremost, patience. None of which are in supply in the new 10-minute economy. It is incredible really that we are in the era of peak content, where everyone can be a creator, and essentially has to be, on some level, a writer but the profession itself is not recognised as worthy.

Subramamiam wrote path-breaking cinema in a time when it was probably easier to write drivel for better money and limelight adjacent to illustrious names, and yet his capabilities as a writer, from the looks of it, will go unrecognised because the world of keywords and clickbait headlines is trying to establish his legacy on the crutches of illustrious names rather than actual work.

Because we are culturally attuned to find heroes through simplistic narratives of love and revenge, the writer has always been considered as the most indulgent of storytellers. Screenwriting is perhaps even more undermined compared to conventional writing because it is seen as an accessory to the powers of the creator and the performer. It has taken us decades to come to a point where studios now recognise their writers on film posters but there is obviously a long way or maybe even no way left to go for the medium to finally find its due. Culturally speaking, we are still far off from recognising our writers’ imprint on cinema, let alone know them through their work through the many films that we have cheered, championed or held close to our heart.

Honestly, there is perhaps no good way of changing this overnight. Studios can obviously empower writers, pay them better, and offer them recognition but the food chain still dictates the writer’s place. Not to mention the public, they are largely irrelevant. It is perhaps what hurts our creative industries, be it cinema or advertising, the most because while they might want to still create and hone better writers, they still do not know how to make them protagonists in our stories.

Nandita Das’ Manto, about perhaps the greatest writer to have lived in the subcontinent, appeared and disappeared from public conscience having made its sole dent in the minds of critics, writers, and cinema loyalists. Pulp fiction has made a late entry into our films via projects set in the hinterland, but it serves more so as a device than the structural origin. Subramaniam’s work on paper would easily outclass, at least in terms of artistic vision, the work of countless exaggerated acting and directing careers in the industry. But he has to evidently make do with being recognised as the ally of celebrities rather than someone who did seminal work in cinema with his pen.

Manik Sharma writes on art and culture, cinema, books, and everything in between.

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