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The Communiqué News

A person who can tell a good lie can be a good story-teller. The pursuit to create ‘hunger’ within audience for story kicks off your creativity


Swati BhaT

From IFFI Campus

I don’t write stories, I steal stories. Stories are there around you, be it epics like Mahabharat, Ramayan or real life incidences, there are stories everywhere. You need to represent it in your unique style, said V Vijayendra Prasad, the famed screenwriter of blockbuster films like Baahubali, RRR, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Magadheera.

“The pursuit to create hunger among audience for your story kicks off creativity within you. I always try to create hunger within audience for my story and characters and that drives me to create something unique and appealing”, said the master story-teller. He was addressing the film enthusiasts at a masterclass on the theme ‘The Master’s writing process’ on the sideline of 53rd International Film Festival of India in Goa today.

While talking about his style of screenwriting, Shri Prasad said, he always thinks of a twist at the interval and organize the story accordingly. “You have to create something out of nothing. You have to present a lie, which looks like truth. A person who can tell a good lie can be a good story-teller”, he added.

Responding to the query of a budding story writer, the ace story-teller said, one has to open up his mind and absorb everything. “You need to be your own harshest critics, then only your best will come out and you can take your work to unscalable heights”, he asserted.

Sharing his experience of writing for the blockbusters like Baahubali and RRR, Shri Prasad said, “I don’t write, I dictate stories. I have everything in my mind; the flow of the story, the characters, the twists”. He said, one good writer should cater to the needs of the Director, Producer, Primary Protagonist and Audience.




MIFF Campus: What a magician does on stage, visual effects does on screen. It does magic with the story and takes it to another level altogether, said P.C Sanath, VFX supervisor and creative director of Bahubali.


Swati Bhat

He said, “When a filmmaker or technicians fail to achieve something in a film, they think of visual effects. VFX can achieve anything, as only the creator’s imagination is its limitation.”

The noted VFX supervisor was addressing a workshop on ‘VFX: An Ever-evolving tool for Storytelling’ at 17th Mumbai International Film Festival today.

Highlighting the importance of VFX, Sanath said there is not a single film in today’s age without visual effect. “The advent of new technological tools has expanded the scope of VFX, but one VFX supervisor should never be carried away by the technology or other similar films. He should always understand the essence of the story”, he said while responding to a query.

He further said, visual effects have been an integral part of cinematic storytelling from the time technologies of moving pictures were invented. As the medium of cinema evolved into the most popular medium of storytelling in the 20th century, visual effects, too, evolved by adapting new techniques and technologies, helping filmmakers tell their stories better.

This master class also illustrated the way visual effects have helped filmmakers in visualizing and realizing their cinematic dreams while also pointing towards the possibilities that VFX offers to future storytellers as new frontiers are being crossed with tools Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).

P. C. Sanath is the co-founder and director of the Firefly Creative Studio (Hyderabad). He has been creating visual effects for the past two and half decades. He has been the VFX supervisor and creative director for blockbuster cinematic ventures including Baahubali-The Beginning (2015), Robot (2010), Eega (2012), Pulimurugan (2016) and Malik (2021). He is the winner of several prestigious awards including National and State film awards for Best Visual Effects. He is part of various industry bodies like TVAGA (Telangana VFX, Animation and Gaming Association). He is also a visiting faculty member and academic advisor at various art and film education institutes like the Film and Television Institute of India (Pune), National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad), and K.R. Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science & Arts (Kerala).


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