Editing Hindi cinema (section)

== Scripts, dialogues, and lyrics ==
{{See also|Bombay Hindi|Tapori (word)|l2=''Tapori'' (word)}}
Film scripts (known as dialogues in [[Indian English]]) and their song lyrics are often written by different people. Earlier, scripts were usually written in an unadorned [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]], which would be understood by the largest possible audience.{{sfn|Gulzar|Nihalani|Chatterjee|2003|p=10–18}} Post-Independence, Hindi films tended to use a [[colloquial]] register of Hindustani, mutually intelligible by [[Hindi]] and [[Urdu]] speakers, but the use of the latter has declined over years.<ref name="lang"/><ref name="scienceandmediamuseum">{{cite web|title=Decoding the Bollywood poster|url=https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/decoding-the-bollywood-poster/|website=[[National Science and Media Museum]]|date=28 February 2013}}</ref> Some films have used [[Hindi dialects|regional dialects]] to evoke a village setting, or archaic Urdu in [[Medieval India|medieval]] [[historical films]]. A number of the dominant early scriptwriters of Hindi cinema primarily wrote in Urdu; Salim-Javed wrote in [[Urdu script]], which was then transcribed by an assistant into [[Devanagari]] script so Hindi readers could read them.<ref name="Akhtar">{{cite book|last1=Aḵẖtar|first1=Jāvīd|author-link1=Javed Akhtar|last2=Kabir|first2=Nasreen Munni|title=Talking Films: Conversations on Hindi Cinema with Javed Akhtar|date=2002|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-566462-1|page=49|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_JILAQAAMAAJ|quote=JA: I write dialogue in Urdu, but the action and descriptions are in English. Then an assistant transcribes the Urdu dialogue into [[Devnagari]] because most people read Hindi. But I write in Urdu. Not only me, I think most of the writers working in this so-called Hindi cinema write in Urdu: [[Gulzar]], or [[Rajinder Singh Bedi]] or [[Inder Raj Anand]] or [[Rahi Masoom Raza]] or [[Wajahat Mirza|Vahajat Mirza]], who wrote dialogue for films like ''[[Mughal-e-Azam]]'' and ''[[Gunga Jumna]]'' and ''[[Mother India]]''. So most dialogue-writers and most song-writers are from the Urdu discipline, even today.}}</ref> During the 1970s, Urdu writers [[Krishan Chander]] and [[Ismat Chughtai]] said that "more than seventy-five per cent of films are made in Urdu" but were categorised as Hindi films by the government.<ref name="film-world">{{cite journal|title=Film World|journal=Film World|year=1974|volume=10|page=65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sHlTAAAAYAAJ|quote=I feel that the Government should eradicate the age-old evil of certifying Urdu films as Hindi ones. It is a known fact that Urdu has been willingly accepted and used by the film industry. Two Urdu writers [[Krishan Chander]] and [[Ismat Chughtai]] have said that "more than seventy-five per cent of films are made in Urdu." It is a pity that although Urdu is freely used in films, the producers in general mention the language of the film as "Hindi" in the application forms supplied by the Censor Board. It is a gross misrepresentation and unjust to the people who love Urdu.}}</ref> ''Encyclopedia of Hindi Cinema'' noted a number of top Urdu writers for preserving the language through film.{{sfn|Gulzar|Nihalani|Chatterjee|2003|p=65}} [[Urdu poetry]] has strongly influenced [[Hindi film music|Hindi film songs]], whose lyrics also draw from the [[ghazal]] tradition ([[filmi-ghazal]]).<ref name="Dwyer" /> According to Javed Akhtar in 1996, despite the loss of Urdu in Indian society, Urdu [[diction]] dominated Hindi film dialogue and lyrics.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bhaumik |first1=Saba Naqvi |title=From nonsensical to sublime, Majrooh Sultanpuri still defines Bollywood frontiers |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/profile/story/19960930-from-nonsensical-to-sublime-majrooh-sultanpuri-still-defines-bollywood-frontiers-833834-1996-09-30 |access-date=7 June 2013 |work=[[India Today]] |date=30 September 1996 |language=en}}</ref>

In her book, ''The Cinematic ImagiNation'', Jyotika Virdi wrote about the presence and decline of Urdu in Hindi films. Virdi notes that although Urdu was widely used in classic Hindi cinema decades after partition because it was widely taught in pre-[[Partition of India|partition]] India, its use has declined in modern Hindi cinema: "The extent of Urdu used in commercial Hindi cinema has not been stable ... the ultimate victory of Hindi in the official sphere has been more or less complete. This decline of Urdu is mirrored in Hindi films ... It is true that many Urdu words have survived and have become part of Hindi cinema's popular vocabulary. But that is as far as it goes. The fact is, for the most part, popular Hindi cinema has forsaken the florid Urdu that was part of its extravagance and retained a 'residual' Urdu", affected by an aggressive state policy that promoted a Sanskritized version of Hindi as the national language."<ref>{{cite book|author=Virdi, Jyotika|url=https://archive.org/details/cinematicimagina0000vird|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/cinematicimagina0000vird/page/19 19]|title=The cinematic imagiNation (sic): Indian popular films as social history|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8135-3191-5}}</ref>

Contemporary mainstream films also use English; according to the article "Bollywood Audiences Editorial", "English has begun to challenge the ideological work done by Urdu."<ref name="lang"/><ref>Desai, Jigna, Dudrah, Rajinder, Rai, Amit, "Bollywood Audiences Editorial", ''South Asian Popular Culture'' (October 2005), Vol. 3, Issue 2, pp. 79–82.</ref> Some film scripts are first written in [[Latin script]].<ref>{{cite news|author=Us Salam, Ziya|title=Assault of the mixed doubles|date=12 August 2007|work=[[The Hindu]]|url=https://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/08/12/stories/2007081250070400.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105153839/https://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/08/12/stories/2007081250070400.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 November 2012|access-date=9 December 2009|location=Chennai, India}}</ref> Characters may shift from one language to the other to evoke a particular atmosphere (for example, English in a business setting and Hindi in an informal one). The blend of Hindi and English sometimes heard in modern Hindi films, known as [[Hinglish]], has become increasingly common.<ref name="scienceandmediamuseum" />

For years before the turn of the millennium and even after, cinematic language (in dialogues or lyrics) would often be melodramatic, invoking God, family, mother, duty, and self-sacrifice. Song lyrics are often about love and, especially in older films, frequently used the poetic vocabulary of court Urdu, with a number of [[Persian language|Persian]] loanwords.<ref name="Ganti2004">{{cite book|author=Tejaswini Ganti|title=Bollywood: a guidebook to popular Hindi cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GTEa93azj9EC|access-date=25 April 2011|year=2004|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-28854-5|pages=22–23}}</ref> Another source for love lyrics in films such as ''[[Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje]]'' and ''[[Lagaan]]'' is the long [[Hindu]] tradition of poetry about the loves of [[Krishna]], [[Radha]], and the [[gopi]]s.

Music directors often prefer working with certain lyricists, and the lyricist and composer may be seen as a team. This phenomenon has been compared to the pairs of American composers and songwriters who created classic Broadway musicals.

In 2008 and before, Bollywood scripts were often [[Handwriting|handwritten]] because, in the industry, there is a perception that manual writing is the quickest way to create scripts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meyer |first=Michael |title=The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing |publisher=[[Bedford]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-312-47200-9 |editor-first= |edition=8th |location=Boston |chapter=A Thematic Case Study: Border Crossings}}</ref>