Newton, the official Indian entry for Oscars 2018 was co-scripted with a lot of sincerity by Mayank Tewari, says Saimi Sattar

A good script always goes a long way in making any movie great. That certainly holds true for Newton which is being hailed as the triumph of great writing. Mayank Tewari, who co-wrote the movie with director Amit V Masurkar, who worked as a feature writer with The Pioneer earlier, is happy that the movie has been selected as the official Indian entry for the Oscars 2018 . He says, “I am feeling validated. It is a good feeling because when you are writing one doesn’t how it will work out. I never expected this reaction from critics or everyone. Both of us wrote the script with a lot of sincerity and faith.”

And the accolades are pouring in from all quarters. When director Sudhir Mishra says in a tweet, “Take a bow, Mayank Tewari! Ye hui na baat,” the writer has reason enough to feel thrilled.

However, this is not the first time that Tewari has collaborated with Masurkar. He wrote the director’s first movie, Sulemani Keeda, where he also acted. “It was apparent to everyone that it was made with a lot of good intentions,” says Tewari.

Tewari also credits the director with the research that went in making the film authentic. “I was jaded after journalism and Amit was coming with a lot of freshness. When he read the Preamble of the Constitution, he was taken aback as to the contrast in what is written and the ground situation. He read 30-40 books, met writers of all hues — the left leaning, the right leaning as well as the centrists to understand their views about Naxals. He interviewed people and wrote the first draft,” he recalls. By the time Tewari came on board, Masurkar was clear that he wanted to make a great movie. “We soon realised that we were cracking it. The first thing we cracked was that we should let go of cynicism and focus on sincerity.” They decided that the central character of Newton, played by Rajkummar Rao was a person who could never become cynical. True to Tewari’s style, he breaks it down and gives an example stemming out of his life as a journalist. “As a reporter, you would have seen that everyone is unhappy with the honest police officer whether it is his seniors, friends or his wife and children. In this man’s (Newton) sincerity, there is a churlishness. He seems to insist that he is like that (sincere) and it can’t be helped,” says Tewari.

Another thing that the co-writers decided at the outset was that it was the children who usually stood first in class, who were responsible for the morass in the country. “IQ and sincerity do not have any connection with each other. It is those journalists who do the leg work who get the news rather than the ones who have studied at some fancy university,” says Tewari, once again digging into his past life to draw out a parallel. They decided that Newton would not be a genius but a man of average intelligence. “Everyone will think him to be stupid as it often happens with people who work with sincerity. They are considered mad,” he adds.

But the team too displayed the same quality of sincerity while crafting the movie. Khosla ka Ghosla director, Dibakar Banerjee’s assistant who came on board for the movie was given the task of learning the entire election manual — and he did. The voting machine was an exact replica of the original. Masurkar brought a retired CRPF person who trained the people playing the jawans assigned to protect Rajkummar Rao who is playing the presiding officer in a Naxal-hit area in the movie. “They started believing that they were actually the CRPF,” emphasises Tewari.

Tewari too stayed in Chattisgarh for six-seven days. “We walked for 10-12 hours to reach villages in the interiors of Chattisgarh. I met this super star of a reporter called Mangal Khulja who made me realise that while reporters in Delhi take information from one source, this reporter is really intense and goes to the interiors,” he says. Tewari travelled to the village of Jagdalpur, met human rights worker, Bela Bhatia as well as lawyers and people from the area.

The observations were incorporated in the movie. “Everything came from these interactions. “Things I saw there made it to the movie. The mahua scene for instance was inspired by real life. Tourists have that charm, when they visit the area, that they should see the tribals and also drink mahua. Many such instances made it to the movie,”

Tewari is all praise for Masurkar and draws another analogy from reporting to explain it. “The dialogues might be mine. But the bigger thing is that like in journalism, a reporter can bring a story which is as big as the courage and conviction of the chief reporter. Amit allowed me that space. Mumbai is an insecure world and directors think that they are privileged and that they know everything while the script writer is nothing more than a munim (account). He has this quality that he shows a lot of faith in me. We are co-writers and he gives me the chance to push the envelope,” he says. He believes that collaborating with Masurkar is a dream. “People fantasise about that kind of collaboration. We have a great tuning,” he adds.

Tewari feels that a stellar cast elevated the script further. “When they speak a dialogue, it goes much beyond the actual written words. They might just run their hand through their hair which turns the scene into something else altogether. Inka ek jalwa hai (they have a charisma).

For the main character they got Rajkummar Rao who takes on the character of an everyday person with ease. “From the beginning, Amit wanted to him as Newton. He is a genius and an amazing guy. I have huge respect for him.” He feels Raghuvir Yadav is another great actor.

And there is one more person that Tewari credits for the writing — his wife, Sheebani Sethi. “Writing was very stressful for me. It is like madness after a certain point. She gave me that emotional support to write an honest script,” he says.

Tewari has no plans for the future. “It is an organic process and will happen the way it has to,” he says signing off. But right now is the time to bring out the bubbly. Oscars, here comes Newton.