Rohith VS, helming the Malayalam action drama Tikitaka, explains that he must finish a script in three or four days to stay engaged, leaving most of the writing to a trusted collaborator. He then reorders and refines scenes to anchor the shoot, concentrating on visual storytelling and character expressions while rejecting narrative arcs that turn unethical characters into heroes.
Talking about his upcoming Malayalam action drama TikiTaka, director Rohith VS explained that he does not enjoy writing and delegated most of the film's scripting process to a collaborator. "As a director, I am a visual thinker. I don't enjoy writing dialogues or writing the content of the film," he told THR India.
"Basically, it is him telling me,” he said, describing his screenplay writer's role in breaking a scene. According to him, his own contribution to the script is what he calls adjectives to the scenes: descriptions of a character's physicality, their peculiarities, and the smallest visual details of what is taking place in a scene.
Due to this, he says, the full process of completing a script has to move quickly for him to stay engaged. "The whole script should happen in three or four days in my case. Otherwise I will get bored. Three or four days is actually possible, I have done that."
Once the script is ready, he goes through it and restructures scenes for his own reference before the shoot. "You have to anchor the shoot. You have to own it. You have to alter it according to your aesthetics. Only then can you go to the shoot. Otherwise, you are super confused."
There are also things he says he simply cannot do with certain scripts, such as taking an unethical character to a heroic finish. "I can't take him to a finish line."
The director attributed his resistance to writing to the way he processes films, through visuals rather than dialogue. "I get the emotion of a character from his or her face.” On whether he could direct a primarily dialogue-driven film, he said: "I don't think I'll be able to pull it off. Writing is not my job. My job is shooting."
Tikitaka, starring Asif Ali, Wamiqa Gabbi and Naslen, is produced by Anto Joseph Film Company.
A release date for the film is yet to be announced.