Home » Entertainment  » Bollywood Baatein »  Scripting a Success Story Ten years in the Indian film industry with ten films and six hits is a commendable achievement for any scriptwriter.

Honey Irani has scripted her own success story in the Hindi film industry. Honey is today one of the most sought after scriptwriters in the industry demanding upto Rs. 20 lakh per film.

Honey began her career as a scriptwriter while in her late forties. Her scripts are known for their no-nonsense demeanour and wacky sense of humour. Most of her scripts are a diversion from the time tested strait jacketed- girl meets boy/ revenge/ good guy vs. bad guy- rules. The much acclaimed film Lamhe was her debut film. The other hits to her credit include Aaina, Darr, Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai and the latest addition to the hit list is Kya Kehna. She is also said to have made valuable contributions to the films Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Dil To Pagal Hai.

A 'Bold' Writer

Kya Kehna, Honey's most recent hit is the story of an young girl who decides to have a baby out of wedlock. It is interesting to note the manner in which such sentimental topics have been handled by Honey. In fact, Honey has a knack of turning unconventional storylines into hits. This is evident in the case of Lamhe (younger woman falling for much older, surrogate father figure) and Kya Kehna (on being a single mother). It hasn't always been smooth sailing for Honey. Some of her flop films include Himalayputra, Laawaris and Parampara. Interestingly, whenever Honey toes the conventional storyline she invariably delivers a dud.

With Kya Kehna, Honey has been labelled as a bold writer. There are, however, certain limits on Bollywood's willingness to be 'bold'. Hence, many of her scripts have no takers.

The Person

Honey is by nature very generous and is also a no-nonsense person. She attributes her take-no-prisoners attitude to eight years of marriage to Javed Akhtar, the writer-lyricist-poet. Their marriage collapsed in 1980 when Javed left her for Shabana Azmi. Despite this the two of them have remained friends, resulting in her children being close to Javed and Shabana.

Her immediate plans are to direct a film. It's a story of a young widower and his possessive eight year old daughter. In the long term she dreams of moving to Kulu Manali and spending her time doing pottery and gardening.