Parineeta's in LA. So what?

When the Margaret Herrick Library, California, which archives film screenplays for the Oscar Academy, wrote to Karan Johar in 2003 asking for a copy of the script of Kal Ho Naa Ho, it was touted as a huge achievement.
The scenario was repeated last month when the script of Parineeta was also invited aboard. Words like 'honour' and 'unique feat' were freely flung around and the producers gushed about how happy they were.
The truth, sadly, is a little more mundane. Kal Ho Naa Ho, contrary to claims, was not the first Indian commercial film to grace the archive, and neither is quality a deciding factor in the choice of scripts.
The one criterion for becoming a part of the Herrick library is that the film has to be screened in Los Angeles county���which is also a rule for qualifying for the Oscars themselves.
Parineeta and Kal Ho Naa Ho follow in the footsteps of Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Lagaan (2002), Swades (2004) and Shabd (2005). The library also houses some of Satyajit Ray's published scripts like Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Sadgati, and the never-made The Alien.
Librarian Greg Walsh admits that the choice of scripts is somewhat arbitrary and has little bearing on a film's quality���chuckling that the latest scripts include Hero (China), The Passion Of The Christ, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Twilight Samurai (Japan) all the way to Nascar 3D.
"We try and cast the widest net," he says, "because our patrons are getting more diverse." Although the library, established in the 1920s for members of the Academy, is a private institution, it is now open to the public.
Film students, journalists and film-makers all come here to do research and pore over the collection of 9,000-odd scripts. Some of them pre-date even the library itself, like 1910 script of Frankenstein.
Despite Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam, Bollywood didn't really find much of a home in the library until recent years. "The growing audience for Indian films in LA has spurred our interest in these titles," says Walsh.
His staff was well aware of Bollywood even before the Oscar nomination for Lagaan. But the nomination spurred a higher industry profile of Bollywood in general, and more films found distributors who released them in LA county.
Walsh is aware that more Bollywood films than the handful in the library's possession have screened in LA. "But they can be difficult to track down," he says. "Ideally, it would be great if everyone sent me their script."
He and his research team clip out articles from 70 to 80 film periodicals and try and track down films with a bit of detective work. Some films, he says, don't have a shooting script at all���just notes.
Sometimes the film-maker is hard to contact or not comfortable sharing the script. Walsh says he's even asked people for just a transcript of the dialogue. Then there's the language issue.
Some scripts show up in Hindi, some in English. "If I have a choice, I'd like it in both languages," he says. And sometimes he just has to be patient.
Parineeta, he hears, is on its way but he's yet to receive it. "It must be in the pipeline," he says hopefully. But has he seen the film? "Oh, no," he laughs. "I am too busy."