Her eyes are full of a mysterious gleam, the kind that is found in the eyes of a six-year-old who runs behind the ice candy van on a daily basis, however, a short quick talk about her work reaffirms Katrin Milhahn’s stature as a children’s film scriptwriter and as a film analyst.

“Writing a script be it for a children’s film is actually a very tough job primarily because the writer needs to have a clear idea about the emotions that the target audience undergoes, and accordingly has to pen down something that will not only keep the children glued to their seats, but also have a subtle message for the adults, who accompany them to the theatres,” says Milhahn. In the city to conduct a weeklong children’s film script writing workshop at FTII Milhahn has a host of ideas that she plans to speak about during the workshop. Telling more about them she says, “The workshop will mainly focus on the fundamentals of scriptwriting keeping in mind the target audience, that is, children. Though creative, writing a script for a movie is very tough, so we will be focusing on the finer nuances of writing scripts. Other important parts that we will be working on include, character building, writing in depth about plots and writing about the emotional conflicts that the characters undergo.”

Milhahn, who has done a diploma on Bollywood stories, candidly admits that she has a soft corner for the Hindi film industry. “They are so colourful, and these colours play such an important role in depicting fine human emotions,” she says excited when quizzed about Hindi films. “As compared to western cinema, Bollywood movies harbour on the thin line that divides imagination and reality. Although they also have many hard hitting films that deal with various socio-economic issues, I just love to identify with the colours that the Indian movies portray.”

... contd.