Breakdown Besties Podcast

How do you write a thriller that keeps making the audience question what they know? In this episode of the Breakdown Besties Podcast, Ananya and Akshay break down Andhadhun, Sriram Raghavan's brilliantly twisted thriller starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu and Radhika Apte. Written by Sriram Raghavan, Arijit Biswas, Yogesh Chandekar, Hemanth M. Rao, and Pooja Ladha Surti If you're an aspiring screen...

Why is it so difficult for new screenwriters to break into the Indian film and OTT industry when producers and directors are always looking for good writers? In this episode of the Breakdown Besties Podcast , screenwriters Ananya and Akshay sit down with Vaibhav Modi, writer, producer and lyricist , to discuss the realities of building a writing career in India, the challenges facing emerging scre...

What makes a TV pilot compelling enough to make you watch the next episode? How do screenwriters build a story engine that can sustain multiple seasons, structure an episode using the five-act structure, and keep audiences invested without relying on cheap cliffhangers? In this episode of Breakdown Besties, working screenwriters Ananya and Akshay break down the pilot episode of Mukhbir: The Story...

Why is comedy so difficult to write, even when it looks effortless on screen? And how does a film like Go Goa Gone combine horror, comedy, action and character drama into an entertaining zombie film? In this episode of Breakdown Besties , we break down the screenwriting of Go Goa Gone (2013), the zombie comedy starring Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Khemu, Vir Das and Anand Tiwari. We examine how the film u...

What does it actually take to write a film like Fashion? In this episode of Breakdown Besties, we sit down with Anuraadha Tewari, the writer of Fashion, for a deeply practical conversation about screenwriting, research, structure, writers' rooms and surviving a career in the Indian film industry. Anuraadha has spent more than 30 years working across television, film and the web. She takes us behin...

Wake Up Sid is often remembered as a coming-of-age film about finding yourself, growing up and figuring out what you want from life. But structurally, there’s something much more interesting happening underneath. In this episode of Breakdown Besties, we break down Wake Up Sid as a screenwriting case study, looking at Sid’s Hero’s Journey, Aisha’s parallel character arc, the film’s theme of indepen...

Why are Indian heroes so often written like superheroes? In this Bhavesh Joshi Superhero screenwriting breakdown , Ananya and Akshay look at how Vikramaditya Motwane's film uses the grammar of superhero movies to tell a much more grounded Indian vigilante story . The film was written by Vikramaditya Motwane, Anurag Kashyap and Abhay Koranne , and stars Harshvardhan Kapoor, Priyanshu Painyuli and A...

Veer-Zaara is one of Bollywood’s great epic romances, but what makes the film work at the screenplay level? In Episode 28 of the Breakdown Besties Podcast, Ananya and Akshay break down Veer-Zaara scene by scene to understand how the film constructs a 22-year love story around separation, sacrifice, yearning and the India-Pakistan conflict. The film’s story, screenplay and dialogues were written by...

Screenwriter resources survey: https://forms.gle/vVFKJ6qdfAyCvF2A9 Why does Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani still work 13 years later? In this episode, we break down the screenplay, Hero's Journey, character arcs, rom-com tropes, theme, dialogue, subtext and scene construction behind Ayan Mukerji's 2013 coming-of-age film. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is one of those films that looks deceptively simple. Four f...

Screenwriter resources survey: https://forms.gle/vVFKJ6qdfAyCvF2A9 What makes Chhichhore work as a screenplay? In this episode of the Breakdown Besties Podcast , we break down Nitesh Tiwari, Nikhil Mehrotra and Piyush Gupta's Chhichhore from a screenwriting perspective, looking at the story structure, character development, comedy writing, ensemble cast, theme, conflict and world building. We get...

What actually goes into writing a film like Om Shanti Om? In this episode of Breakdown Besties, Ananya and Akshay sit down with Mayur Puri, writer of Om Shanti Om, for a behind-the-scenes conversation about the craft, choices and accidents that shaped one of Bollywood’s most memorable films. Mayur talks about how he got the opportunity to write Om Shanti Om, the unusual story behind “Ek Chutki Sin...

Om Shanti Om Screenwriting Breakdown | Hero’s Journey, Character, Dialogue & Scene Craft Written by Farah Khan, Mayur Puri, & Mushtaq Sheikh What makes Om Shanti Om work as a screenplay? In Episode 25 of Breakdown Besties, Ananya and Akshay break down Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om from a screenwriter's perspective, looking at the structural choices, character design, genre conventions, scene c...

Rang De Basanti is more than a patriotic film. Twenty years after its release, it still feels uncomfortably relevant. Why? Because the writers didn't just tell a story about six college friends. They built a screenplay that connects personal grief, political anger, history, friendship, and revolution into one emotional journey. In this episode of the Breakdown Besties Podcast , we break down the s...

Want to break into Bollywood as a paid screenwriter? We teach you all the writing tips, tricks, and techniques to become the best Bollywood writer you can be! Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Hindi Medium (2017) starring Irrfan Khan. Written by Zeenat Lakhani, Saket Chaudhary and Amitosh Nagpal, this film explores the wide education gap in India. In this episod...

Want to break into Bollywood as a paid screenwriter? We teach you all the writing tips, tricks, and techniques to become the best Bollywood writer you can be! Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Bhoot (2003) starring Ajay Devgn and Urmila Matondkar. Written by Sameer Sharma and Lalit Marathe, this film is one of Bollywood’s spookiest horror stories with some real...

Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Ek Tha Tiger starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif. Written by Aditya Chopra, Kabir Khan, and Neelesh Misra, this film explores how a RAW and ISI agent navigate a forbidden romantic relationship when love trumps the rules of nationalism. In this episode of the Breakdown Besties, your film-school level screenwriting class experie...

Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Karthik Calling Karthik starring Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone. Written by Vijay Lalwani, this film explores our relationship with our own mind and how we can become prisoners and victims of ourselves without even quite realizing it. In this episode of the Breakdown Besties, your film-school level screenwriting class experi...

Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film OMG! Oh My God (2004) starring Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar. Written by Bhavesh Mandalia and Umesh Shukla, this film explores our relationship with faith - how one’s personal practice of spirituality and religion is often taken advantage of by institutions claiming to house our creator while exploiting the devotees with unblemi...

Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Hum Tum (2004) starring Rani Mukherjee and Saif Ali Khan. Written by Kunal Kohli and Siddharth Raj Anand, this film explores the evolving relationship between a man and a woman who meet across different phases of life, riding the ups and downs of every evolution of lives and themselves together, asking the quintessential early 2...

Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Black (2005) starring Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh Bachchan. Written by Bhavani Iyer, Prakash Kapadia and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, this film explores the relationship between a teacher and his differently abled student, as he helps her grow from a hopeless child into a young woman with promise. Ahead of its time with bold choices an...

Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Raazi starring Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal. This spy thriller written, (Bhavani Iyer, Meghna Gulzar), directed, and starring women takes us into a world that we’re not privy too- how women contribute to the war efforts to prove their patriotism and mettle. Adapted from the rich source material provided by the book Calling Sehma...

Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Bari! starring Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra!  This wonderfully whimsical film written by Anurag Basu, Tani Basu, and Sanjeev Datta provides a mezmerizing cinematic experience that makes the audience suspense all disbelief while they’re glued to their seats, wondering how these phenomenal characters will escape their damning...

Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Lootera (2013) starring Sonkashi Sinha and Ranveer Singh!  This heartbreaking adaptation of O’Henry’s The Last Leaf, written by Bhavani Iyer, Vikramaditya Motwane, and Anurag Kashyap, shows us how Western tales can be culturally adapted for Indian audiences and elevated to provide a gut-wrenching and mezmerizing cinematic experi...

Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Fashion (2008) starring Priyanka Chopro-Jonas!  This insider, almost voyeuristic view into the behind-the-scenes world of supermodels, written by Madhur Bhandarkar, takes audiences on a journey into a world we otherwise have little access to. In this episode of the Breakdown Besties, your film-school level screenwriting class ex...

Welcome to the screenwriting breakdown and analysis of Bollywood film Paan Singh Tomar (2010) starring Irrfan Khan!  This poignant biopic about the state of Indian sportsmen and the dacoit crisis in India, written by Sanjay Chauhan and Tigmanshu Dhulia, tells an important tale to audiences right from the heartland. In this episode of the Breakdown Besties, your film-school level screenwriting clas...