Writer Anuja Chauhan to pen dialogues for Sonam Kapoor Ahuja’s next

Come August, and Sonam Kapoor Ahuja will start shooting her next, the screen adaptation of author

Anuja Chauhan

’s book, ‘The

Zoya Factor

’ with south star Dulquer Salmaan. Adapting a book for the big screen is often seen as a challenge given that books tend to have layered and complex narratives which films seldom have. When we asked director Abhishek Sharma about this, he said, “It’s important to keep your focus while adapting a book for the big screen. ‘The Zoya Factor’ primarily is a rom-com revolving around a superstition, a superstar and an aam ladki. That is the focus of our narrative. India is such a superstitious country and we have addressed that in our script. The subject drew me to it. It’s based on chick-lit but it has cricket, the world cup, romance and a great lead pair that will draw everyone’s attention to this film.”

Often, authors get involved with the adaptations of their work for the screen or stage. Chetan Bhagat, for instance, was hugely involved with ‘Half Girlfriend’. When we asked if Anuja Chauhan is also involved with ‘The Zoya Factor’, Abhishek confirmed it and said, “Anuja’s books are brilliant. She creates these beautiful worlds around her characters. So, we got her involved with the polishing of the dialogues of the film. She’s also re-writing a couple of scenes which will add the right flavour to the script. She’s the one who is most familiar with the world of ‘The Zoya Factor’ and it’s great that she’s involved herself with the script also. I hope we don’t let her down with what we do with the script eventually.”