John Paul rewrote a whole screenplay for I V Sasi's film in just five days

I first met John Paul in 1972. That was also the year Artist Kitho, me and Sebastian Paul started this film magazine called ‘Chithra Paurnami.’ Our office was at MG Road. A few days later Sebastian Paul appeared with a tall thin young man. He was John Paul. That was the beginning of a friendship and we started getting together on film sets and had extensive cinema discussions.

I think it was in 1977 and IV Sasi was doing a new film, scripted by Parappuram. I knew Sasi and at that time I used to write stories and novels in weeklies. Sasi didn’t like the last half of Parappuram’s script. But he was reluctant to tell that to Parappuram. If we hire someone to rewrite the script, everyone will come to know about it. But Sasi won't start shooting without rewriting the script. When he told me his dilemma, I was the one who suggested John Paul’s name. Since Sasi didn’t know John, he asked me to help him. When I called John, he was perplexed—“What? How can I? I haven’t even written a short story?” But when I insisted, he agreed. He took a hotel room and in 5 days, he rewrote the screenplay. We became rebels in just 5 days.

We later collaborated on scriptwriting. ‘Iniyum Kadha Thudarum’ was one such collaboration. For ‘Akalangalil Abhayam’, I wrote the story and John wrote the screenplay. The same goes for ‘Onnanu Nammal.’