Five Point Someone inspired 3 Idiots: Abhijat Joshi

3 Idiots has been the toast of Bollywood this season; and writer Abhijat Joshi is overwhelmed with the kind of reactions he’s been getting. Though all seems to be well, the movie has faced its share of controversies, too. The writer talks about the movie and the mayhem...
What do you make of the reaction that the movie has garnered?
To tell you the truth, we didn’t have the slightest desire to write India’s biggest blockbuster.When I saw people talking about the dialogues and even imitating the actors in the movie, I realised that this was something else. Figures and collections are important, but people speaking the lines from films... that’s beautiful!
Post the movie there has been a lot of media attention given to students’ suicides...
The first scene we wrote was the funeral scene of the student. It was bothering us as to why so many students face such pressure. Education should be a matter of excitement. When you get to know something new or see something new, you are excited. So then why’s that not happening? What’s the problem with education? We got thinking about that. We hope that this movie conveys that message.
You have worked with Raj Kumar Hirani on Lage Raho Munna Bhai and 3 Idiots. Do you see yourself going solo or turning director?
I think I am still growing as a writer. Two years later, I may change my mind and go towards direction. But right now, I think my craft as a writer is coming together.
Chetan Bhagat had issues with being given credit in the end of the movie...
We didn’t understand what the whole issue was. We had been saying for the last three years that Five Point Someone had inspired the film. We didn’t hide it. There was an agreement that the credit will appear at the end because we didn’t want people to watch it with the expectation of seeing the book on screen. In that case, they are already watching another movie in their mind. Our screenplay is of 168 pages and 160 pages have nothing to do with the book. But we value those eight pages a lot. Suddenly these allegations of copying and stealing cropped up... we didn’t know what happened. The book is not about a man who is an impostor, who crashes a wedding, whose friends go in search of him, his friends don’t stop a plane to search for him, they don’t kidnap a girl from her wedding, deliver a baby... Whatever we took from the book we gave them credit for. The contract was followed to the T. The book is about three kids who want to take it easy. One guy sleeps with the principal’s daughter and they steal the keys to get the exam papers. They get caught and put the blame on the girl. There’s no nobility in that act. We didn’t want to write that story. We don’t value it at all. What’s valuable was the ethos of the book. That’s why we bought the rights. The book triggered the story, we took parts of the book for which the credit was given.
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