Kill Your Darlings

Untouched by clichés, unaffected by convention, undeterred by censors, Sudip Sharma, the writer of NH10 and Udta Punjab, is laying a fearless path for screenwriting in Hindi cinema.

- Ekta Mohta

In September 2013, director Abhishek Chaubey and writer Sudip Sharma had wanted to do a “cool sex-drugs-and-rock- n-roll movie, Trainspotting-type”, research for which would have meant walking into any party in Versova. “But, I’d read a longform article in Tehelka by Sai Manish called ‘What hit this land of plenty?’” says Sharma. “It was a very well-researched article on the drug problem in Punjab. It felt like the right place to set it in.” To other interviewers, Chaubey has said, “I thought Punjab was a great setting because of cross-border drugs supply. Plus, we wanted a rock star and the Punjabi music scene was great for that. But, even for people like us who don’t shock easily, what we saw in Punjab was pretty shocking. In the streets, there were more de-addiction centres than akharas.”