PIFF: Nichetti and Plá discuss why dialogues are not necessary in a film

Italian filmmaker Maurizio Nichetti, known for the 1989 acclaimed film, The Icicle Thief, among others, and director Rodrigo Plá, best known for The Delay (2012), which was Uruguay's official entry for the Oscars in 2012, discussed the important aspects of script writing at the Vijay Tendulkar Memorial Lecture at the 16th Pune International Film Festival's PIFF Forum on 14 January.

Know as a master satorist, Nichetti said that one needs to be aware of his or her sorroundings to be a good script writer.

While talking about basics of script writing, Plá said that he likes stories which involve unethical problems.

“Ideas comes from everywhere. I think that while writing it is necessary to pick one character put it in a conflict and take it till the end. Also one must not say the same things several times as it kills the charm," he said, as an important tip to scriptwriters.

Nichetti, who is from Milan, started his journey in world of miming and cartoons. His debut film, Ratataplan, was a comedy with no dialogues at all and managed to win hearts and at the box office when it released in 1979.

Describing his experience Nichetti said, "Cinema is all about visuals. Dialogues are necessary but never so important for cinema as a lot dialogues are good for book, radio and theatre”

While explaining his approach to cinema, Plá said, “I believe dialogues can be added or modified as per character.”

Nichetti says that all his films have a female protagonist and believes in creating dreamy environment in order to portray reality in his work.

Plá, on the other hand, said that he believes in sticking to reality and takes inspiration and references from newspapers.