Reference Material: Books, Magazines, Films

Essential reading

1. “The Art of Dramatic Writing”, by Lajos Egri

2. “Story”, by Robert McKee
3. “Hero with a Thousand Faces”, by Joseph Campbell
4. “Poetics”, by Aristotle (The Leon-Golden Ed.)
5. “Writing the Character-Centred Screenplay”, by Andrew Horton

Suggested reading

1. “Alternative Scriptwriting: Writing Beyond the Rules”, by Jeffery Rush and Ken
Dancyger
2. “Adventures in the Screen Trade”, by William Goldman
3. “Screenwriting 434”, by Lew Hunter
4. “Making a Good Script Great”, by Linda Seger
5. “The Writer’s Journey”, by Christopher Vogler
6. “Stealing Fire From the Gods: A Dynamic New Story Model for Writers and
Filmmakers”, by James Bonnet
7. “Creating Unforgettable Characters”, by Linda Seger
8. “The Craft of the Screenwriter”, by John Brady
9. “Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach”, by Paul Joseph Gulino
10. “Top Secrets: Screenwriting”, by Jurgen Wolff and Kerry Cox
11. “Four Screenplays”, by Syd Field
12. “The Rites of Passage”, by Arnold Van Gennep
13. “Structures of Fantasy”, by Richard Michael
14. “An Anatomy of Drama”, by Martin Esslin
15. “The Artist’s Way”, by Julia Cameron
16. “Gods in Everyman”, by Jean Shinoda Bolen
17. “Goddesses in Everywoman”, by Jean Shinoda Bolen
18. “The Heroine’s Journey”, by Maureen Murdock
19. “The Seven Basic Plots: Why we tell stories”, by Christopher Booker
20. “The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film”, by Linda Seger
21. “Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama”, by David Mamet
22. “Laughing out Loud: Writing the Comedy-Centred Screenplay”, by Andrew Horton
23. “Global Scriptwriting”, by Ken Dancyger
24. “Secrets of Film Writing”, by Tom Lazarus
25. “Film Scriptwriting”, by Dwight V.Swain
26. “A Story is a Promise”, by Bill Johnson
27. “Film and Literature: A Comparative Approach to Adaptation”, by Wendell Aycock and
Michael Schoenecke (Eds)
28. “Screenwright: The Craft of Screenwriting”, by Charles Deemer
 29. “Heroes and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes”, by Tami D.Cowden, Caro LeFever
and Sue Viders
30. “Thirty Six Dramatic Situations”, by Georges Polti and Lucille Ray
31. “45 Master Characters: Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters”, by Victoria
Lynn Schmidt
32. “The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By”, by Carol S. Pearson
33. “Indian Popular Cinema: A narrative of culturual change”, by K. Moti Gokulsing and
Wimal Dissanayake
34. “Bollywood: A Guidebook to Popular Hindi Cinema”, by Tejaswini Ganti
35. “Bollywood: The Indian Cinema Story”, by Nasreen Munni Kabir
36. “Talking Films: Interviews with Javed Akhtar”, by Nasreen Munni Kabir
37. “Sholay”, by Anupama Chopra
38. “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge”, by Anupama Chopra
39. “Mother India”, by Gayatri Chatterjee
40. “The Screenwriter Looks at the Screenwriter”, by William Froug
41. “The Screenwriter Looks at the New Screenwriter”, by William Froug
42. “Screenwriters on Screenwriting”, by Joel Engel
43. “Oscar Winning Screenwriters on Screenwriting”, by Joel Engel
44. “Monster: Living off the Big Screen”, by John Gregory Dunne
45. “Inner Drives: How to Create Characters Using the Eight Classic Centers of
Motivation”, by Pamela Jaye Smith

Essential Reading

1. A Doll’s House – Henrik Ibsen

2. The Cherry Orchard – Anton Chekhov
3. Mother Courage – Bertolt Brecht
4. Macbeth – William Shakespeare
5. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
6. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
7. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
8. Death of Ivan Ilyich – Fyodor Dostoevsky
9. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
10. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
11. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
12. The Mahabharata (Abridged by Kamala Subramanyam)
13. The Ramayana (Abridged by Kamala Subramanyam)
14. Godan – Munshi Premchand
15. Black Margins – Short stories by Saadat Hasan Manto
16. Tughlaq – Girish Karnad
17. Chakravyuha - Ratan Thiyam
18. Tamas – Bhisham Sahni
19. Andha Yug – Dharamvir Bharati (Transl: Alok Bhalla)
20. Aashad ka ek din – Mohan Rakesh
21. Yayati - Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar
22. Parineeta – Saratchandra Chatterjee
23. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
24. Middlemarch – George Eliot
25. The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
26. The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
27. Sons and Lovers – D. H. Lawrence
28. Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller
29. The Fall – Albert Camus
30. The Trial – Franz Kafka
31. Metamorphosis and other stories – Franz Kafka
32. 1984 – George Orwell
33. Animal Farm – George Orwell
34. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
35. The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger
36. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
37. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
38. The God of Small things – Arundhati Roy
39. An Equal Music – Vikram Seth
40. Disgrace – J. M. Coetzee
41. A House for Mr. Biswas – V. S. Naipaul
42. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John le Carre
43. The Third Man – Graham Greene
44. The Moon and Sixpence – W. Somerset Maugham
45. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
46. A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
47. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
48. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
49. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
50. Waiting for Godot – Samuel Becket
51. Portrait of the artist as a young man – James Joyce
52. Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
53. A Passage to India – E. M. Forster
54. Dr. Faustus – Thomas Mann
55. Gora – Rabindranath Tagore
 

Other recommended books

1. Hedda Gabbler – Henrik Ibsen

2. An Enemy of the people – Henrik Ibsen
3. The good woman of Setzuan – Bertolt Brecht
4. King Lear – William Shakespeare
5. Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare
6. As you like it – William Shakespeare
7. Comedy of errors – William Shakespeare
8. The Tempest – William Shakespeare
9. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
10. The Outsider – Albert Camus
11. Sorrows of young Werther – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
12. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
13. Nostromo – Joseph Conrad
14. Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad
15. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
16. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
17. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
18. Treasure Island – R. L. Stevenson
19. Emma – Jane Austen
20. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
21. Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf – Edward Albee
22. A Streetcar named desire – Tennessee Williams
23. Mourning becomes Electra – Eugene O’Neill
24. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead – Tom Stoppard
25. Look back in anger – John Osborne
26. Iron in the soul – Jean-Paul Sartre
27. Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
28. 2001: A space odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
29. A Man for all Seasons – Robert Bolt
30. Introductory Lectures – Sigmund Freud
31. Interpretation of Dreams – Sigmund Freud
32. Psychopathology of everyday life – Sigmund Freud
33. The Power of Myth – Joseph Campbell
34. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
35. Shantaram – Gregory Roberts
36. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
37. Golden Room – Doris Lessing
38. Woman’s Room – Marilyn French
39. The Bottle-factory outing – Beryl Bainbridge
40. Amsterdam – Ian McEwan
41. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
42. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
43. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
44. On the Road – Jack Kerouac
45. The Godfather – Mario Puzo
46. Love in the time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
47. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
48. The Honourable Schoolboy – John le Carre
49. The End of an Affair – Graham Greene
50. The Human Factor – Graham Greene
51. Dracula – Bram Stoker
52. Interviews with a vampire – Anne Rice
53. The Getaway – Jim Thomson
54. The Bourne Identity – Robert Ludlum
55. The Shining – Stephen King
56. 7 Pillars of Wisdom – T. E. Lawrence
57. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
58. Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
59. The Leopard – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
60. The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
61. Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
62. Tess of the d’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
63. All about H. Hatter – G. V. Desani
64. The Importance of Being Ernest – Oscar Wilde
65. Ulysses – James Joyce
66. To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
67. A room with a view – E. M. Forster
68. Howard’s End – E. M. Forster
69. The Memory of Treason – Rebecca West
70. Malgudi Days – R. K. Narayan
71. Raag Darbari – Srilal Shukla
72. Such a Long Journey – Rohinton Mistry
73. The Seed and The Sower – Laurens Van Der Post

Recommended authors

(For students’ interest)

1. Rabindranath Tagore
2. Phanishwar Nath Renu
3. Bapsi Sidhwa
4. Amitav Ghosh
5. Jhumpa Lahiri
6. Vijay Tendulkar
7. O. V. Vijayan
8. M. T. Vasudevan Nair
9. U. A. Ananthamurthy
10. Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai
11. Vaikom Mohammed Basheer
12. Mahasweta Devi
13. Amrita Pritam
14. P. L. Deshpande
15. Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar
16. H. G. Wells
17. Carl G. Jung
18. Bibhutibhushan Bannerjee
19. Fay Weldon
20. Len Deighton
 21. Elmore Leonard
22. Peter Hoeg
23. Primo Levi
24. Dylan Thomas
25. Henry James
26. Edgar Allan Poe
27. Andre Gide
28. Guy de Maupassant
29. Mario Vargas Llosa
30. Milan Kundera
31. Naguib Mahfouz
32. A. J. Cronin
33. Roald Dahl
34. John Cheever
35. John Updike
36. Norman Mailer
37. Oliver Sacks
38. R. D. Laing
39. A. S. Byatt
40. Peter Mathiessen
41. Lewis Carroll
42. Moliere
43. Ionesco
44. Elizabeth Bowen

Recommended Magazines

1. Creative Screenwriting
2. Sight and Sound
3. The Hollywood Scriptwriter
4. Fade in
5. Written by
6. Screenwriter

Recommended Films

1. Casablanca
2. Lagaan
3. Mother India
4. E. T.
5. It’s a wonderful life
6. Jo jeeta wohi sikander
7. Witness
8. Deewaar
9. Chinatown
10. Silence of the lambs
11. Maqbool
12. Manthan
13. Rear window
14. Chupke Chupke
15. Satya
16. Pulp fiction
17. Mughal-e-azam
18. Sholay
19. Rashomon
20. Annie Hall
21. The Usual Suspects
22. No man’s land
23. Charulata
24. The Shawshank Redemption
25. The Godfather trilogy
26. Roja
27. Ganga Jumna
28. Arth
29. One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
30. On the waterfront
31. The Untouchables
32. L. A. Confidential
33. The sixth sense
34. Kramer vs. Kramer
35. All the president’s men
36. Becket
37. Amadeus
38. Terminator 2
39. Dilwale dulhaniya le jaayenge
40. Ardh Satya
41. Network
42. Nayakan
43. Gandhi
44. 12 angry men
45. Ordinary people
46. Guess who’s coming to dinner
47. A man and a woman
48. The sting
49. Thevar magan
50. Saaransh
51. The fugitive
52. Shree 420
53. Damini
54. American beauty
55. North by northwest
56. Masoom
57. Sahib, biwi aur ghulam
58. Unforgiven
59. The Full monty
60. Monsoon wedding
61. Marty
62. It happened one night
63. The Crying game
64. Groundhog Day
65. Jerry Maguire
66. Meghe Dhaka Tara
67. Aladin
68. Braveheart
69. The Piano
70. Ghost
71. Roman holiday
72. La strada
73. L’aventurra
74. Pather Panchali
75. Khosla ka Ghosla
76. Munnabhai MBBS
77. Dil chahta hai
78. Rang de basanti
79. The Namesake
80. Dev D.
81. Rang de Basanti
82. Khosla ka Ghosla
83. Maqbool
84. The Lord of the Rings trilogy
85. City of god
86. Fargo
87. Lone star
88. Shine
89. Before sunrise
90. Before sunset
91. Tootsie
92. Memento
93. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
94. Boyz n the hood
95. The Circle
96. Erin Brokovich
97. Maria full of grace
98. Capote
99. Monsoon wedding
100. Dogtooth
101. Osama
102. Baran
103. Little Miss Sunshine
104. Half Nelson
105. L’enfant
106. No country for old men
107. Shrek
108. Finding Nemo
109. Sweet Sixteen
110. The Machinist
111. Paradise Now
112. 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days
113. Amores Perros
114. The Lives of Others
115. Talk to Her
116. Another year
117. Vicky Donor
118. Kahaani
119. Subramaniapuram
120. The Diving bell and the Butterfly
121. A Prophet
122. In Bruges
123. The Class
124. The Big Lebowski
125. Cell 211
126. Children of Men
127. Incendies
128. Chak de India
129. Udaan
130. A Wednesday
131. Taare Zameen Par
132. A Separation
133. Sideways
134. An education
135. The Secret in Their Eyes
136. Fish Tank
137. Monsieur Lazhar
138. Argo
139. Gone Baby Gone
140. Amour
141. Silver Linings Playbook
142. The Wrestler
143. Frost/Nixon
144. The Visitor
145. 50/50
146. The Social Network
147. Despicable me
 148. The Sessions
149. Fireworks Wednesday
150. Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!
151. The Dark Knight
152. A Beautiful Mind
153. The Lunchbox
154. The Reader
155. Schindler’s List
156. Taxi Driver
157. Fight Club
158. The Past
159. The Hunt
160. Requiem for a Dream
161. Black Swan
162. Gravity
163. Juno
164. Catch Me If You Can
165. Magnolia
166. Happiness
167. Rocket Singh: Salesman of the year
168. The Lunchbox
169. The Edge of Heaven
170. Inception
171. Ocean’s Eleven
172. Babel
173. Amores perros
174. Inglourious Basterds
175. The Prestige
176. Shrek
177. Up
178. Waltz with Bashir
179. How to Train Your Dragon
180. Grave of the Fireflies
181. American History X
182. Her
183. The King’s Speech
184. Baran
185. Milk
186. The Lion King

Recommended TV Shows

1. I Love Lucy (1951-57) - 2nd and 3rd seasons

2. The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-71) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
3. The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
4. The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
5. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
6. MASH (1972-83) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
7. Cheers! (1982-93) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
8. The Simpsons (1989- ) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
9. Twin Peaks (1990)
10. Friends (1994-2004) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
11. Gunsmoke (1955-75) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
12. Bonanza (1959-73) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
13. Perry Mason (1957-66) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
14. The Rockford Files (1974-80) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
15. Dallas (1978-91) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
16. Dynasty (1981-89) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
17. Law & Order (1990- ) - 2nd and 3rd seasons
18. Homicide (1993-99) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
19. The West Wing (1999-2006) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
20. The Sopranos (1999- ) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
21. Six feet under (2001-2005) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
22. Sex and the City (1998-2004) – 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th seasons
23. The $64000 Question (1955-58) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
24. The Price is Right (1972- ) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
25. The $25000 Pyramid (1973-92) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
26. Who wants to be a millionaire (1999-2002) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
27. Survivor (2000) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
28. Fear Factor (2001- ) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
29. The Apprentice (2004- ) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
30. American Idol (2002- ) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
31. The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (1962-92) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
32. The Carol Burnett Show (1967-78) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
33. Saturday Night Live (1975- ) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
34. E. R. (1994- ) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
35. Seinfeld (1990-98) – 2nd and 3rd seasons
36. Breaking Bad (2008- )
37. Homeland (2011- )
38. The Newsroom (2012)
39. Sherlock (2010- )
40. Lost (2004)
41. Dexter (2006)
42. House of Cards (2013- )
43. True Detective (2013- )
44. Fargo (2013- )
45. Orange is the New Black (2013- )
Some Recommended websites

● Drew's Script-o-Rama - script-o-rama.com

● Internet Movie Database - imdb.com
● Screenwriters Utopia - screenwritersutopia.com
● Word Play - wordplayer.com
● Writers Guild of America, West - wga.org
● Writers Guild of America, East - wgaeast.org
● Greatest Films - filmsite.org
● Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - oscars.org
● Rottentomatoes.com