For someone who was pursuing geology at Kumaon University in the beautiful and quiet town of Nainital; National School of Drama (NSD) sure was a different leaf to turn. And the turn has led him on a different road - one he loves and lives on.

The creative brain behind more than two-dozen screenplays of the episodes of Rishtey, Star Bestsellers, Saturday Suspense, and X-Zone, Trivedi has also been penning shows like Ketan Mehta's Mr. Yogi, Amol Palekar's Mrignayani, Manju Singh's Ek Kahani and Darshan, Ajai Sinha's Samay and the award winning Justujoo.

Apart from that, he has worked on the BBC sitcom adaptation for Indian television One Foot In The Grave, Doordarshan's popular cultural magazine Surabhi and a magazine on environmental issues Bhoomi. He has also produced a daily soap called Ye Dil Kya Kare for Zee.

Bolstering his career graph, are his stints as commissioning editor with Star Plus in 1995-96 and Zee TV in 1996-97.

His ambit includes not only television but also extends to films. Dialogues of blockbuster Bollywood movies like Ghulam, Aisa To Na Tha (a film still in the making), among others come from this man's creative juices.

Ishan Trivedi spoke to indiantelevision.com's Richa Singh about his work and the issues that surround his work. Excerpts:

What brought you to scriptwriting?
I'm from Nainital and we had a theatre group over there. Since I was interested in pursuing it as a career, I applied at the National School of Drama (NSD) and got selected. That's how it all started.

At NSD, I had adapted a Scottish play. Somebody chanced upon it and asked me to write a series called Bargad for Pradeep Krishan. Arundhati Roy was doing the screenplay. Then in the late eighties, I came down to Bombay and worked with Ketan Mehta for about three years.

But what happened in Bombay is interesting. There were a lot of writers in the industry, but not many respected deadlines. So if somebody comes around with respect for deadlines, then work starts rolling. That is exactly what happened with me. I don't know whether I was good or bad, but I always wanted to make television serials and films. I had specialised in direction at NSD. There was no course in writing in those days.

And now that you are on the faculty of a scriptwriting course - Qalam 2003, what is the most important lesson that these new scriptwriters can imbibe from your experience?
Reject the clichés. Whatever comes to your mind first is the easy way out. It is something that you've seen and heard over a period of time. It is déjà vu.

I think one should always be willing to break the 'set' mould. Only then will you grow as a writer. Unfortunately, most of the times the producers, channels, directors demand that 'this is what works currently and this is what you have to write'. For me personally, whether I'm successful or not, I've never been into trends. Agreed that one has to write as per the market, but you need not cater to the market all the time.

Second thing is that it is a discipline like any other job. Deadlines are deadlines.

You are very particular about timing.
I strictly adhere to the deadline, don't miss it even by a minute. That is what makes me very popular among producers. And I realise that most of us are cheating on that aspect because we take up too many projects and don't really focus on what we should be doing.

Also, I sometimes feel that most writers tend to compartmentalise themselves. Instead of interacting with the real world outside, they are on their computer or notebook writing 10-12 hours a day. That is when they stop growing and follow clichés.

Read as much as you can, see a lot of movies, theatre, and go to a lot of painting exhibitions...

So, basically you derive your learning curve from experience and interaction.
A scene can be done in 50 different ways. So unless you start exploring those paths you will dish out the same fare. It will earn you your bread, but the growth stops. Television, as a medium, wouldn't grow; films don't grow either.

Since you've brought up this correlation between clichés and growth, what's your take on the fact that scripts often change with TRPs because of channel interference?
Channels' logic is that they know what they are doing - their jobs are at stake. So most of the times, channels dictate what they think is right. But their point of view may or may not be shared by writers or producers.

Of course, for a successful channel, even a slight drop in TRPs is like a sword hanging on their heads. But at the same time, I feel that there should be that space for conversation between producers and channels.

Do you view it as a compromise - as an encroachment of your space?
Obviously yes. But since the channels help you earn your bread, you can't afford to antagonise them. Nobody's going to say no to what the channel demands. It's a sad scenario.

But how significant are TRP ratings for you - do they influence what you write or how you write?
To be honest, yes. If I'm writing a show like Justujoo, which is appreciated by all and wins all the awards but doesn't get high TRPs, it bugs me. In such a scenario, you are not very sure whether what you are making is going down well with the audience or is it just being watched by a niche audience. I think it is human that you want to be popular and you want your programme to be popular as well.

Wasn't Justujoo meant for a niche audience?
No. A television programme is not meant for a niche audience unless it's a commissioned programme for select audiences on channels like BBC or Discovery or to some extent even Doordarshan.

What are the other projects you are working on?
As far as TV is concerned, none. I am writing two films for Ajai Sinha. One is Uphaar, which is about Indo-Pak relations and the other is Stop, which is about friendship - you could call it a crossover film.

Also I'm writing and directing a feature film called Sapna Hai, Sach Hai, Kahaani Hai. I am in process of signing Irfaan Khan, while talks are on with Govind Namdeo, Anand Desai, Vijay Kashyap and Lalit Tiwari.

It's a small budget film scheduled to go on floor from 1 December. It's about television channels and how they start dictating what is to be followed by real people - how they get involved with reality or the real world. It's an idea we'd been working on for the past four-five months.

Which genre do you enjoy writing for most? If you have to make a choice, which one would you rather not do without?
A genre that is not happening currently, at least on TV - which is - thrillers.

But you do have thrillers Balaji's 'Kya Haadsa…' on weekends on TV these days.
Not exactly those kinds of thrillers. But the real-real thrillers... maybe a mystery. A thriller may not necessarily be about crime - it can be about relationships also, probably like... Star Bestsellers.

So why do you think we don't have a market for telefilms?
The moment you call them telefilms people withdraw. In America, they have channels showing alternative cinema where they produce films exclusively for television. Big stars are called and huge budgets are allotted.

In India, we have a very restricted market and the same people are busy with television… so there is no time for alternative cinema. Then again, the budgets are meagre. For instance Josh. They had the budget, they shot it on film and they treated it like a film. Whether it was good or bad, I won't be able to comment but that is the treatment you need for a film. Even for series like Kashmeer, the budget was not very high which means you make a lot of compromises in terms of logistics, so neither became a big game.

In America, even a Tom Hanks would appear in a television film. That is the difference. People don't want to see the same television actors repeating in a 90 minute film. So there's no difference between television programmes and telefilms.

So quite evidently, you enjoy television more than films.
Yes, I've written very few films. I do get offers for films but they are fraught with danger.

Once I was promised five lakhs after a lot of bargain. But I got only one lakh.

Our scripts don't draw on our rich Hindi and regional literature. Why?
But how many amongst us know who are the prominent names in literature? I could tell you instances when people have asked me who Premchand is! 'Is he a producer?' I don't think we are a nation that is interested in literature at all.

There is no market for literature. It is only in the second stage where you turn literature into a visual medium.

How many people buy literature? How many buy books? In India, very few.