Want to follow Nora Ephron's footsteps? Try for Romance Screenwriters' Lab

Mumbai: If you have a gripping idea for a romantic story and you wish to see it manifest into a book as well, try your luck with the Romance Screenwriters' Lab, a new initiative by NFDC Labs and publishing company Harlequin.

NFDC Labs is the training and development arm of the National Film Development Corporation Ltd.

The lab, a three-part program, organised and spearheaded by NFDC, is the first of its kind with romance and women-centric plots as the themes. Popular Indian film writers and directors, to be announced soon, will mentor the final selected scriptwriters.

"With romance as an eternally entertaining genre worldwide, where India is no exception to stories and films in this space, our partnership with Harlequin for this initiative couldn't be a better fit," Nina Lath Gupta, managing director, NFDC India, said in a statement.

"There is a vast pool of exceptionally talented writers with unique and diverse stories in this country and offering this opportunity to enhance their skills with talented mentors will only help us compliment our ongoing developmental mandate," Gupta added.

The deadline for the submission of the entries is May 23.

The objective of the lab is to help aspiring Indian scriptwriters develop their scripts with inputs and consultation from well-known Indian writers and directors.

The first round of selection from the entries received will be done on the basis of the synopsis submitted, post which the selected participants will need to submit a detailed script with dialogues, where the best few will be zeroed in on.

While NFDC will conduct the three-part workshop with the selected participants on scriptwriting mentored by writers and directors, Harlequin too will have separate book-writing workshops led by well known authors, offering novel writing tips and editorial feedback to the writers.

"We're looking forward to getting original and compelling romance stories, which could have elements of drama or thriller or comedy or even darker issues, and be set in contemporary times or any time in the past," said Amrita Chowdhury, country head and publishing director, Harlequin India.