The Hinjews writers

Strikeout, another script by this duo, is also finalist in the Open Door Contest sponsored by Script Magazine, The Radmin Company and The Fort Lauderdale Film Festival. As of now, the project has a commitment for the part of Dev from Roshan Seth (winner of the Genie -Canada’s 1999 Best Actor Award for Such a Long Journey), and Madhur Jaffrey (Cotton Mary) is considering the part of Geeta. Plans are to cast Om Puri (East is East) for the part of Commissioner Shah.

Bollywood star, Urmila Matondkar has also expressed interest in playing the part of Nita. Music composer Michael Danna and Sitar virtuosos Vilayat Khan and Shujaat Hussain Khan have expressed interest to compose the soundtrack.Nayan Padrai, writer and producer of the project says: “This is a different type of romantic comedy in that it’s about not falling in love. It’s about a regular guy who wants his parents to arrange his marriage, so he can live happily ever after. Of course, nothing goes the way he plans, and the result is a complete comedy of errors. This project is a far cry from most films with South Asian subject matter. Most of those films have been about laughing at us rather than with us. Readers from Hollywood have called to say, “Hey, I never thought about the other side of the coin.â€

“The entire purpose of writing this project was to reverse these stereotypes and present South Asians in a humourous light. We have tried to keep the balance so that it will appeal to both the mainstream and of course to South Asians,†says Nayan.

Ralph Stein says this about the team’s writing process: “The most interesting part of writing a script about South Asian subject matter, was to first have Nayan explain all the Indian traditions to me, so I could help write all of the Indian culture scenes. This allowed the traditional Indian scenes to have a sort of a non-Indian slant, that would cross over to all audiences and be universally understood.â€This dynamic team met three years ago at the Austin Heart of Film Festival, and wrote the story for their first script Disorganised on the plane back from the festival. And it’s been non-stop writing ever since.

The unique mix of their different backgrounds and ages has given their work a style of its own. They have placed well in almost every screenwriting competition and contest, and their screenplays have received the attention of many Hollywood development executives, agents, producers, directors, and stars.Nayan Padrai, 25, studied screenwriting at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Ralph Stein, 38, a graduate of psychology from Boston University changed careers at the age of 34 when he realised his calling in life.

– Our NEW YORK Bureau