Mid-day 44th anniversary special: Mumbai helped script a career for him

As a child growing up in Raipur listening to stories about progressive Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz from his maternal grandfather Syed Shadan 24 would never have guessed they would one day turn him into a writer Today the youngster is in Mumbai writing for the film industryldquoNanaji was a shayar and an economics professor Faiz had come to Bhopal in the 1980s and my grandfather was part of that mehfil when he wrote something for the celebrated Pakistani poet and author My mother still remembers that and for a good part of my life I have heard her tell this story over and over againrdquo he saidLittle did Shadan know this memory would form the basis of lsquoA dinner at Khanrsquosrsquo his script that won him the opportunity of a lifetime The Screen Writersrsquo Associationrsquos ScriptLabs had invited entries and the selected six scriptwriters were going to be mentored by Vikramaditya Motwane Sudip Sharma Alankrita Shrivastava Shakun Batra Smita Singh Khan and Abhishek ChaubeyldquoI was among the six selected entries It was fairly simple one had to send five pages of the story and the first 10 pages of the script Only if you were selected they would ask for the full scriptrdquo Shadan said The film the basis for which is lsquoA dinner at Khanrsquosrsquo revolves around what is now known as the Rawalpindi conspiracymdasha coup attempt in Pakistan to overthrow the government in 1951 in which Faiz played a significant roleldquoBut then that script is still to see the light of day because it is very difficult to move forward with a film set in Pakistan in the current political climaterdquo Shadan said While the chance to be mentored by the best in the industry happened because Shadan was in Mumbai at that point it is not what brought him here in the first placeIn current times access to the internet can make a difference in somebodyrsquos life That is what happened to Shadan In 2020 when he was in his fourth year of law school in Raipur he decided to put himself out there on a screenwriterrsquos community on Reddit ldquoI was really just looking for some feedbackrdquo he saidIn a twist of fate somebody from Vishesh films reached out to him to take the script that he had put up on Reddit forward ldquoThey wanted me to write further but nothing came off that project But that was the beginning that got my foot in the door I began an association with that production houserdquo Shadan recalledA year later the production house reached out to him and asked if he was interested in assisting filmmaker Hansal Mehta with his film Faraz This was in 2021 just a month or two before COVID19 cases surged across the countrymdashShadan soon moved to MumbaildquoFrom then on there was no stopping I eventually started writing with the writers of Faraz I want to become a filmmaker eventually but it is much easier to break into the writing scene than the filmmaking scenerdquo he saidIt is not uncommon for new arrivals in Mumbai to face a series of hurdles while searching for a house to rent He realised the first strike is whether you are a single man or woman the second is if you are not a vegetarian and the third is when you do not belong to the community that the building members lsquoapprove ofrsquoldquoThis is the first city I have lived in apart from Raipur This is where I became more politically awarerdquo Shadan saidHowever it came at the cost of facing the personal horror of being discriminated againstmdashIslamophobia ldquoFinding a house in Mumbai was a reality check The only places I could find a house were where other Muslims also lived It pains me to put it like this but this has been my experience in the city I had to visit hundreds of houses in Mumbai before finding a suitable accommodationrdquo he saidMumbai meri jaanLove about Mumbai The people of Mumbai are unmatched Nowhere in the world have I seen the creative community come together like in MumbaiHate about Mumbai As much as we see diversity in Mumbai what I hate the most is the lack of cohabitation I would like more and more people from different backgrounds to live together instead of there being communitybased areas Other than that most times I dislike the pace of the city because it overwhelms my artistic sideExpectations from Mumbai I wanted to be a part of the creative community in Mumbai While moving here from a small town I also hoped that I would be a part of a much more progressive cityDid Mumbai live up to it While it has lived up to the first part it has failed in the latter partWill it remain forever home Mumbai is not my home yet Sometimes I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking I am in Raipur But I am now comfortable in the city I look at Mumbai as my workplace and Raipur as my home and I donrsquot think that will change anytime soon