What motivated you to become a writer?

My dad became late when I was little and growing up in a poor family with six siblings without any luxuries, my main pastime especially when it was bedtime, was to make up stories in my head, with the script, dialogues and screenplay.

My favourite one was about a little motherless girl, who although was the only child of a wealthy business man, had to live in a poor home, due to the fact that the businessman’s rivals would have kidnaped and harmed her if they knew that she existed.  Once in a while, she got to secretly go to her real home and experience the luxurious life as well.

I have been on stage from my nursery school days and have also written little plays, taught the actors, bought the outfits and directed it all at my own cost.  So although my day job as an assistant manager at an insurance broking company paid the bills, my passion for stories never faded.

Starting on a blank page is not easy – where does your creativity come from?

As a teenager when I was studying commerce, business and trade, the extra class was speech and drama at a fee of 0.60 cents per month which I could not afford.  Although I was receiving the top student award every year in the general assembly, I was very embarrassed once a week when I was the only student thrown out of the speech and drama class into the open for every other student to see.

It was my experience of this adversity, that pushed me to swim against the current in every aspect of my life, especially to write this screenplay that can be shared with the world, from a person who was thrown out of the very class that this profession needed.

Do you write projects knowing that so many other factors need to happen to get it to screen and does that come into your project creation?

Although the story, script and screenplay is the brain-child of a writer, I respect the fact that many other people’s creative input is imperative to have a final product that is Oscar worthy and these people are the most creative humans on earth.  I came to Hollywood to pitch it and spent the whole day at Universal Studios, to experience first hand as to how movie making has evolved in quantum leaps.  I also went to India three times and was on set to take in as much as possible of what it entails to bring it onto the screen.

From a return on investment point of view, this feature will involve three countries and the budget shared with Hollywood as the lead, with co-producers in India and Canada.  As a cost saving factor, no need to incur travelling and hotel expenses for the crew, as well as transport, insurance etc costs to move equipment, as the co-insurers can shoot the scenes in their respective countries with their own crew and equipment and Hollywood edit it together.

Furthermore, as the ever changing rate of exchange has a negative effect on development costs, all financial dealings can be made on a “forward cover basis”, so that the rate of exchange is set at the time of making the deal and not at the end.

What is your dream for this project and what other ancillary revenue do you think it could generate?  Please include script title.

I have conceptualised, created and captured this four-quadrant screenplay, which has global appeal across the barriers of every race and religion as well and it will be watched by families for generations to come.

Gentlemen Of The New Millennium, is based on a youth who has a deep respect for all females, takes a stand against his bigamist dad, who disrespects and has a callous attitude towards all females.  The antagonistic conflicts between them, destroys his young NBA career and the family nests, but his morals and integrity makes him succeed in restoring the dignity and respect of all females and getting back to the top of his game.  It has an injection of basket-ball, martial arts, fashion-showing and some exhilarating activities.

Once shown on the big screen, it will not only show how females should be treated right, but will also emphasise how males should be seen in a positive light.

With regards to the ancillary revenue, T-shirts can be printed with the title of the feature, Gentlemen Of The New Millennium, as well as on school bags etc.  No boy carrying this bag will grow up by being mean to a female or be a bully to another boy, so not only will there be lots of monitory returns, but also thousands of positive rippling connotations for a social change for the better as well.

How has your experience been with screenwriting contests for this project so far?

Understandably, each one of the readers have their own perspective of how it should be changed, so I obliged as there is no end to learning.  I also submitted to your contest and for a Commercial Viability Rating and incorporated all of the suggestions.

This screenplay came out in the top hundred, as well as on a semi-finalist list.

If you could stand in a room full of investor partners looking at many projects, what would you like them to know about you and your project?

It would be perfect, as I always requested companies who held pitch sessions to have all the investors in an auditorium and the screenwriters can come in one at a time and pitch once to everyone.  The session will be over sooner, as well as every screenwriter gets to pitch to all investors.  Any questions they have, can be sent by email.

My charity of choice is a home for children from mostly broken homes, hence I am passionate about this feature and to bring about a social change, so that homes such as these will not be necessary in the future, as all bad perceptions of males against females will change for the positive.

When every mom is looking for ways to inculcate the art of right living into her little boys right now, to co-exist in an equal gender world, this feature and the two songs will do that and more and the songs could become like national anthems.

I don’t just want to take up space on this earth but be the change, so don’t you want to produce it for a great return on investment, as well as the much needed social change?