Meet the winners of IFP’s Short Scriptwriting Challenge from last 3 years.
Over 2,100 writers participated across last 3 years from over 260 cities and 19 countries. The scripts were read by some of the most influential and enthusiastic scriptwriters, screenwriters and authors who cam on-board as jury members. Read below the synopsis from winning scripts.
Theme – Old School Love in the Time of Technology
Genres – Drama, Comedy, Time-Travel
Delivery Boy
Winner: Platinum Script Of The Year
Writer: Hareesh Konduru, Hyderabad
Synopsis – A delivery boy from 2074, who usually delivers across the time, took an highly complicated project because of his hatred towards his time’s insensitive relations. He ended up in wrong place and wrong time, where he met a guy whose love towards his wife became so admirable to delivery boy he took a delivery job for him, which might have a life risk.
The Cupid Way
Winner: Gold Script Of The Year
Writer: Kashyap Pavra, Ahmedabad
Synopsis – Rahul a college guy has crush on Sunaina, but he lacks the skills to impress her, but luckily the god of love, Cupid himself has decided to help Rahul. The cupid feels that today’s generation has become dependent on technology so much that the old ways have been forgotten, which used to work like charm and showed affection in a glorious way. So by using Cupid’s way of love, Rahul tries to impress Sunaina.
YOLO
Winner: Silver Script Of The Year
Writer: Aftab Ali, Mumbai
Synopsis: 16 year old Aqeel has just fallen prey to the biggest evil of digital love and it couldn’t have come at a worse time – plum in the middle of his board exams! But when a Stranger from the future grabs his hand, his entire world turns upside down. And now, in order to save his one true love – Aqeel has to go old school. Because #Yolo: You Only Love Once.
War, or Peace?
Winner: Bronze Script of The Year
Writer: Vishal Tiwari, Howrah
Synopsis: Arjun, a charming guy with loads of followers gets too self-aware as he reaches to a book store for a blind date with Disha set up by his friends. Disha, an asocial woman without any social media account or a phone number waits for him near the Tolstoy’s section reading war and peace. After a humble greeting(to some extent, boring) they grab a cuppa and sit down together in a coffee shop located in the store. Arjun finds the idea of a coffee shop inside a bookstore a tad absurd as he believes it is ethically wrong but Disha reasons by saying how less people buy books and they start to argue. To put an end to this, Disha comes up with the plan to meet up for a second date only when this particular book “War and Peace” is sold. If Arjun is right, someone will buy it very soon and they can go out for the second time. But if Disha is right… well, let’s hope for Arjun that she isn’t. To track the movement of the book, they start exchanging letters to each other. Every day they go up to the book store after their respective shifts and put the letters inside the book … until the day someone finally buys it (if anyone ever does so)
To Bae or Not to Bae
Winner: #5 Script Of The Year
Writer: Sharada S, Mumbai
Synopsis: Ansh, a GenX collegian and successful YouTuber, has a huge crush on his fellow mate, Zeel. His friends label her ‘uncool’ due to her absence on social media. Ansh gives in to his friends’ wishes to forget her. His only supportive friend, Yug, encourages Ansh to talk to her in person. Ansh confides in him his awkwardness to approach Zeel in a real world scenario. That same fateful night, in his dream, he time travels to a dystopian future, where collegians rate each other on superfluous basis. Ansh experiences firsthand a social boycott when his ‘smart’ device fails. In his forced isolation, he encounters Zeel, who is also a technological outcast. Later, when his device is repaired, Artificial Intelligence warns him that she belongs to the ‘loser’ category. Any contact with her would lower his social standing. A.I. takes the form of his circle of friends and acts as a barrier between them. Once awake, Ansh mobilises, rebelling against the controlled dream world. He asks Zeel to collaborate with him in one of his YouTube segments. It piques her interest and gives her an idea for her own Psychology project. He has made a friend, ‘offline’.
Theme – Modern Day Love
Genres – Romance, Drama, Sci-Fi
Meerakil
Winner: Platinum Script Of The Year
Writer: Ramakanth K, Pune
Synopsis – Meera and Akil, in a live in relationship look at adopting a baby. They cannot agree on things and question what they want to do. Their work keeps them apart on occasions to give them time to figure out future. They love their time together in between work craziness and travel. Adopting a baby becomes a mjor hurdle for both of them. Having options confuses Akil in deciding the future. What will they do for each other to show their love?
Songs of Innocence
Winner: Gold Script Of The Year
Writer: Smera Juneja, Mumbai
Synopsis – Somil, a ten-year-old boy is listening to a Spanish song while writing down some words in a book. His elder brother, Raju hits him lighly when he sees him use his phone without permission. He snatches the phone away and Somil pleads him to give it back telling him that he is trying to learn English. Raju is confused and listens to the song Somil was listening to. On realising that it is not an English song he hits him again and suggests him to go to D’Souza aunty and learn properly. Just then Somil’s attention shifts to the window where a foreigner lady and her 10-year-old daughter are approaching a bakery. Seeing this Raju understands his intentions and confronts him light heartedly. Somil blushes and runs out to the bakery to Mrs. D’Souza and pleads her to teach him English. At first she is reluctant but eventually agrees. Next morning, Somil is well dressed and anxious. When it strikes 10, he runs out of the house and sees the girl. He approaches her and blurts out a few lines in broken English. But she looks at him blankly and reveals that she is French and doesn’t understand English properly. Somil laughs nervously and runs away. We later see that Somil listening to a French Opera song, trying to learn the words.
Happy Birthday!
Winner: Silver Script Of The Year
Writer: Rujuta Deshpande, Seattle, USA
Synopsis: Anuradha is anxious about her forthcoming arranged marriage to Arun. Overwhelmed by the prospect of post-marital intimacy, she voices her insecurities about her body and her inexperience to her best friend, Manju. The fact that Arun has been in a relationship before while she hasn’t worsens her angst.
Manju shows Anu a web article on ways to have smooth sexual intercourse. However, Anu gets herself in a pickle when instead of posting a Happy Birthday message on her fiancé’s Facebook wall, she accidentally posts a portion of this article on it for a brief moment.
Consumed by worry and embarrassment, she confesses this incident to her conservative parents. Her parents fear that Arun’s family might not take it well and cancel the marriage.
The next morning Arun and his family visit Anu’s family. Their interactions convey their cluelessness about the previous day’s incident. Although ultimately, when Arun asks Anu if she’d like to attend a new couple’s sexual counseling session with him, Anu realizes that Arun had indeed seen the message. He not only understands her insecurities, but wants to be there for her. Anu gains confidence that their union can indeed blossom.
Love at First Blind
Winner: Bronze Script of The Year
Writer: Ashish Godya, Salem
Synopsis: A simple paradoxical love story where two random neighbors meet per chance for the first time. One uses technology to avoid the world while the other uses it to connect to the world, meet in the most conventional way, on a train and start up a conversation. in this day and age of online dating, it’s a pleasant experience to see two people who live so close by, end up never meet but by chance, as the story unfolds, bringing to light how technology helps those with disabilities fr some time feel like normal people.
The Blind Sight
Winner: #5 Script Of The Year
Writer: Manpreet Dhami, Barabanki
Synopsis: A guy and a girl in their early days of relationship go to a park to spend some quality time. But there is a fear of people intruding their privacy which brings awkwardness between them .They try to ignore the people around them to make sure that the weird situation thus created does not affect them. On failing , they come up with their own unique way to bypass their fear.
Theme – Over the Edge
Genres – Romance, Horror, Thriller, Drama, Humour
The Last Letter
Winner: Platinum Script Of The Year
Writer: Vishal Jejurkar, Nashik
Synopsis – Mohan is Gay, he is 60 years old, lives in Mumbai, and he is still in the closet. The days in which he grew included times when different sexualities & lifestyle were neither understood nor tolerated. He got married to a girl, and in a few years, the distance between between them grew wider. He had nowhere to release his sexual tension, and no one to talk about it. But over the years, Mohan managed to create a fantasy world around him to help him escape from reality and the society. His fantasy world was based on three key elements a gramaphone, a rocking chair and his wild imagination; he used to listen to music while sitting on his chair and fantasize the men he found attractive. To manage complexity in his life, he used to write anonymous letters and then post them without any address or stamp. One day, while Mohan’s wife is cleaning the house, the gramophone accidentally falls to the ground, and along with it, Mohan’s fantasy world shatters to pieces. The repair shop asked for five days to repair te gramophone. In these five days, Mohan is now unable to escape to the insensitivity of his world. Things start falling apart, and Mohan realizes that he was the slave to the objects that launched him into his fantasy world and without them, he has become remarkably vulnerable. He struggles with the most mundane things that he managed to hide from all these years, he now starts to notice the things that were part of his life all along. He starts to see his world differently. Eventually, as the gramophone arrives, Mohan has to make a choice, either return to his fantasy world or face his fears and come out of the closet to live the remaining days of his life being himself.
Mirza’s Friend Ghalib
Winner: Gold Script Of The Year
Writer: Anupam Sen Gupta, New Delhi
Synopsis – Mirza 54, is an aspirational film maker who works with a small stationery shop in the business district of Mumbai as a helper to support himself. He is an introvert and doesn’t have friends or acquaintances. He doesn’t speak at all. The only time he does is when he talks to an unknown friend and mentor on the phone at night and discusses his scripts. As he doesn’t open his door one day till late morning, the neighbours of the slum call the police and open to find Mirza dead. After the post-mortem, the police find no foul play but remain confused that Mirza’s phone never had any connection.
The Empty Patch
Winner: Silver Script Of The Year
Writer: Suraj Patil, Pune
Synopsis: Shubham is an introverted college student whose best friend is a girl named Saili. One day, Shubham is discussing or rather having a monolgue about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose with his two roommates. He wishes to meet his hero but thinks that is impossible, little did he know what providence has planned for him. He gets a call from his best friend who has been away a lot in the last few months. A girl who had never missed a single day of college was away for a month and nobody knew where she had gone. He goes to meet her and is confused when she behaves as if they haven’t met in a long time. Saili asks him to help her out with borrowing an item from a place which blows his mind away.
Overdose
Winner: Bronze Script of The Year
Writer: Neel Nakra, Navi Mumbai
Synopsis: In a dystopian future, a young – tech addict, Harsh, becomes a victim of anxiety disorder. His parents, for his recovery, put him through a severe treatment, without his consent. Things don’t go as intended and Harsh, eventaully finds himself locked in a room without any access to the world outside or his phone. The circumstances put his disorder to the worst of the test which eventually drive him over the edge.
Papa ki Coffee
Winner: #5 Script Of The Year
Writer: Arun Duvva, Bangalore
Synopsis: The ever – smiling and goofy Mr. Jain always wanted his last rites to be performed in Dwarka. The ever – smiling and goofy son, Ajit Jain, wants to fulfil his goofy father’s request. However, the Universe has failed his plans to keep the dead Mr. Jain close to what he always loved the most.
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