6 "E"s for a Good Script

Last 3 years of my life have been fascinating as I could get the opportunity as the Head of Film Business, to read over 100 scripts in Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam languages, which helped me to understand what a good script comprises of. Adding to this, is the knowledge and experience of watching hundreds of good, average and bad movies over the years in several languages. Based on this learning and knowledge, I could arrive at a set of requirments, for a good script to be. Though I cannot write a good script myself, the best thing is I am able to appreciate a good script or comment on a script with detailed points, has been time and again accepted by several new and established script writers in the last one year in many languages. In fact, some of them mentioned that I am a good Script Doctor!


I have written about this in one of the film magazines, which led to an invitation to speak at a leading Film Institute and explain this further. The students have lapped up the idea and appreciated the concept and in fact each of them did an empirical study on some 20 films released in the recent past and corraborated the concept itself on how worthy was these scripts.


To my mind, a good script must have 6 "E"s if it has to be commercially viable. Remember, if the objective is to make a film for awards or for some other purpose, it need not follow this concept. Films meant for "niche audience" can be a single person's point of view (writer and director), without worrying about the likes and dislikes of the audience. For a commercially viable film, the script must appeal to larger audience and hence must follow some pattern / set of requirements.


1. Entertaining: The film's paramount objective should be to entertain the audience. If the film script is not entertaining at least in parts (if not in full), it will fail to motivate the audience to see it again. The audience are coming to entertain themselves to a film and hence the script must first fulfil this requirement.


2. Emotionally Connecting: The audience must be able to emotionally connect with the film script. When the audience is able to connect with the film emotionally, they would speak about the film favorably leading to good word of mouth and repeat viewing. If there is no emotional connect, the film will not the hearts of the people.


3. Engaging: The film script must engage the audience in such a manner that they are not bored in between for long and or made to leave in between. Even if the script engages the audience from time to time, it has a better chance of appeal with the audience. If the script can engage the audience for 2 hours, at least for that sake, there will be one time viewing by most.


4. Educating / Enlightening: Take aways from the script/film is important. What does the film script intends to convey to the audience and how far it helps them to think, is the key. It cannot be a plain entertainment oriented film with mindless comedy/sequences as such a script will have only one time/instant appeal and not a long term appeal. Film, which are educating the audience on a new concept/theme, has better appeal. However, they must not be preachy ... the script must educate/enlighten in a subtle manner, appealing to the subconsicious mind.


5. Experimenting: Without using the conventional formula or masala stuff, how the script is different from the rest will make a better appeal. The script must stand out from the rest of the movies for it to have a better chance of success. If every script is going to be a conventional one (following standard formula of songs and scenes), why should the audience see this film?


6. Empowering: The script must leave the audience empowered at the end of the film. They should either learn or feel empowered with the script for the script to make a bigger impact. Empowering here must be seen more from the concept of whether the film made them feel great watching it, apart from entertaining them ... Films like A Wednesday, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Chak De, Lagaan etc. have all made common man feel empowered at the end of watching them.


No script can score on all the above 6 parameters. The best way to judge how a script fares on the above parameters is to assign a rating of 1 to 5 (1 for Least and 5 for the Best) for each of the 6 parameters for the script. Once the ratings are assigned, total the same for the entire script and plot it against the following table to know its fate:


Score 0 - 10: Never consider such scripts. Reject.

Score 11 - 15: Need improvements in the script. Rework and then review on the parameters to see whether it is worth considering again.

Score 16 - 20: Average script. Can be considered if done on a tight budget.

Score 21 - 25: Certainly worth considering and a Hit script

Score 25 and above: Perfect script and must not be missed.


I have plotted the above ratings and scale for several films and find it is working empirically. Why not you attempt the above for your set of film scripts also? ... A method to the madness of film making is this attempt. Hope u would make use of it.

The biggest challenge is studying the script in detail, evaluating them on the above parameters and then taking a decision. Most of the decisions on the script are taken instantly by the decision makers leading to huge failures. It is a classic case of "Instant Pleasure (of saying Yes to a script) and Long Term Pain (of losses)". One must time more time to select the Script before venturing into Production is my strong view.

Another key to apply the above concept is, the ratings must not be done only by one person as he or she can be biased on the parameters. At least 3 - 5 people who have read / listened to the script must evaluate the script on the above and the average of their ratings for each of the paramters must be used to arrive at the total score and the consequent decision.

We have started using it ... hope others would find it interesting to use this method.