Writer turned producer Raakesh Paswan has had quite a journey in Telly land. Having begun as an assistant director before turning writer the multi faceted Paswan is currently writing and producing the path breaking Baba Aiso Var Dhoondo. He has penned shows like Bhagyavidhata, Luteri Dulhan and the long running Hamari Devrani. In an informal chat the writer-producer talks of his journey, the lack of good writers in the industry and much more. Excerpts: You have debuted as a producer with Baba Aiso…how has it been? When Baba… came on air people loved the concept of the show and till date people keep praising it. When it launched the concept shocked viewers. They expected the girl to be handicapped, dumb, deaf or dark. But when they finally came to know that the girl was a dwarf they were surprised. But it did not score the way I wanted it to. After it was shifted to a different time slot there was a drop in TRPs. I am still struggling to get the numbers back. There have been a few new entries on the show. Have they been brought in to get the numbers? It’s not that we planned because the TRPs fell. This family was slated to come in much before but due to some reasons we delayed it. Tell us about your journey in the industry? I was an Asst. director and then finally I got into writing. It’s not that I started writing after coming to Mumbai but my background has been that of a writer. I used to do Hindi theatre. I am talking about twenty years back. I wrote my first play when I was 17. I also wrote plays for radio a lot of which were hits. That was my five year journey in radio and theatre. When did your journey begin in Mumbai? I wanted to join NSD and FTII but it did not happen. Since I am from Chalwasa a small village in Jharkhand where we would get our results only after two years of having appeared for the exam. However the minimum qualification for both these institutes is graduation and I did not have the results in hand. Hence, I thought about exploring Mumbai as I wanted to understand things here and I did meet a lot of people. Out of whom a few asked me to join the industry as it would give me better understanding and practical knowledge. This is when my journey to Mumbai commenced. Actually I wanted to be a film director but direction did not happen to me. However there was a time when I used to write film scripts in my free time so that I could use them someday. I did meet a few producers with my script but nothing worked in my favour. A lot of friends were aware of my struggle and one of them asked me to write for TV. But I was very hesitant about writing for TV as I wasn’t sure I could really write for TV. However when I started writing for TV I realised it was very easy. Though I started as a co-writer in the next six months I was doing independent projects. Producers today do not have the liberty to do much on a show. Comment The actual producer is the channel and the so- called producers are all paid producers. We are just given a task which we have to complete. The industry runs on the star system and its not just actors who are stars. There are stars in every system. Like there is star producer Ekta Kapoor, star director and star writer so the ones in that bracket are heard. The rest have to prove themselves. Ekta has already proved herself as channels have earned revenue because of her. Just like her there are directors and writers. So those who fit in that elite bracket have the liberty to do whatever they want on their show. Stories get modified depending on the ratings of the show. Is this not frustrating for a writer? If I write a story my vision will never match with that of others. But there are people who work with a writer’s conviction because you will see a lot of shows that are writer’s shows. But all the writers have only six or eight months of a written story so when the show is stretched more than that people start suggesting how the story should evolve as he too does not have a story by then. Can we say industry lacks good writers? There are a lot of writers but yes we do lack good writers. Actually in the past few years most of the good writers have turned producers. Once in about every five years there is a new bread of writers that enters the industry. Regardless of this the industry is facing a crisis where good writers are concerned. Very often scripts are written just before a shot. Does this not limit the creativity of a writer? That happens for dialogues. Story, screen plays are ready well in advance. As dialogues come later the director often calls the writer on the set. This is also because we shoot back to back. In fact the channel also does not emphasise on getting episodes in advance because they do not know if a track will work or not. In such cases then writers have to do some on the spot changes in the story. What’s next? Producing and writing some more shows which I can’t disclose now as its too early. But will keep you posted.