Reality is stronger than fiction: Dinesh Gautam

Dinesh Gautam an extremely known face in the field of Journalism always had his inclination towards script writing. The journalist turned writer who has already written for many famous stage plays is gearing up for his film ‘Ab Dilli Dur Nahi’. Dinesh spoke exclusively to First India News about his journey and more.

Speaking on how he started writing he shared, “I am officially a journalist so because of my theatre background I was inclined towards writing. In an incident, I met Mahesh Bhatt and he made me believe that I could write. He also made me write a piece for his plays. Then I started writing full-fledged plays for him. The two of my most prominent plays were ‘ Agar Baat Niklegi Toh ‘ & other one was his stage adaptation of his movie Daddy.”

He added, “I had written the story titled 'Marksheet' but the concept was stolen by the makers of ‘Cheat India’. We had complained about them as well. And then I had to write a new story from the scratch. It was a double struggle for me. That’s how the writing of the story Ab Dilli Dur Nahi begins.”

The story revolves around a boy from the village of Bihar and sudden incidents in his life force him to become an IAS officer, what happens thereafter and his journey from Patna To Delhi. His socio-economic and socio-political changes around him have been portrayed. The story also has a hint of a love story.

Sharing how he came up with the concept he said, “The story is a bit influenced by my real life, there was a time when I was home sick that entire feeling has been depicted in the film. So I could relate and enact to the character of the story. After thinking of the story we met Mahesh Bhatt with an essence that people could relate with the story. He just said it’s important to bring life to the screen. If it’s on the page it has to be on the stage, he indeed guided us through."

Speaking on what made him do the switch from journalism he shared, “The reality is stronger than the fiction, we see how things happen daily. So a balance needs to be stricken between the cinema and reality. So being a journalist helps in balancing that graph.”

The film is all set to release on the 12th of May at the theatres near you.