Vikas Kapoor on being ‘God’s own writer’

Mumbai, June 23  Vikas Kapoor, who has penned scripts for TV shows like “Jai Santoshi Maa” and “Shirdi Sai Baba”, has opened up about being called “God’s own writer” and the return of his shows “Om Namah Shivay” and “Shree Ganesh” on the small screen amidst the COVID-19 lockdown.

So far, he has mostly scripted TV serials based on tales of gods.

“After I came to Mumbai, I began writing for the mythological TV serial ‘Geeta Rahasya’. Then I was stamped as the writer of religious serials. As a result, I got work mainly related to religious serials. But I consider myself fortunate because the almighty gave me opportunities to write about him and I got a virtue (Punya), which one gets after a lot of saintly work,” said Kapoor.

His show “Om Namah Shivay” is being re-televised after 23 years.

“I am a devotee of Lord Mahadev (Shiva) and I get filled with emotions with darshan of Mahadev. I had done scripting for this serial after the 135th episode. Before that the scripting was done by Dr Rahi Masoom Raza. After his demise, Dr. Achala Nagar and late Darshan Lad. After that producer Dheeraj Kumar and director Chandrakant Gaud encouraged me to bring in novelty and new ideas to the story. Thereafter, I scripted the serial till end,” he shared.

His other show, “Shree Ganesh”, is being re-telecast after 20 years.

“It was the first TV serial based on the mythological legend behind Lord Ganesh. Before the shooting, nearly 20 episodes were written and the date of the shooting was also fixed. That time one incident indicating the glory of lord Ganesh occurred. Since long I was doing recitation of ‘Ramayan’ on every Tuesday. In ‘Bal Kand’, I had read that Shiva and Parvati worshipped Lord Ganesh after seeking permission of sages during their wedding. After reading that, I was startled and felt that Lord Ganesh was giving some indications. I was puzzled with a question, how Ganesh could be worshipped when he was not born? I told producer Dheeraj Kumar that our serial will not begin with the scene of Lord Ganesh’s birth,” he recalled.

“Dheeraj ji trusted the entire team. On my advice, Dheeraj ji stopped the shooting and we began fresh research based on Ramayan. After a lot of research, my colleague from Tamil Nadu, gave me some compendiums containing detailed information about Lord Ganesh, which was not available in the compendiums available in North India.”

Then he wrote fresh episodes where he presented the “real story of Lord Ganesh. It was just like Lord Vishnu appearing as incarnation of Ram, in mother Kaushalya’s lap and sometimes as Krishna in the lap of Devki. Lord Ganesh too, appeared in mother Gauri’s lap. Initially viewers in North India were unable to understand Lord Ganesh’s majesty. But after a few episodes, maximum viewers liked it and serial remained on the top”.

He also touched upon the topic of writers not getting royalty for their efforts.

“As of now, writers do not get royalty. But after a lot of efforts by the Screenwriters’ Association, the Copyright Amendment Bill was passed in 2012 and now it has become an act. With this, even the scriptwriters are entitled to royalty. But still there are some difficulties. The royalty can be collected only by the Copyright Society. But the society to collect the scriptwriters’ royalty under the Copyright Act is to yet to be legally recognised. Once it is recognised, the screenwriters’ society will begin the work of collecting the royalty. Then the scriptwriters will start receiving the royalty like it is given to lyricists and music directors,” he said.