Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari: Most of my writers are from small towns in MP and UP

In the film

Bareilly

Ki Barfi Pankaj Tripathi's character Narottam Mishra shares a cigarette with his daughter Bitti (played by Kriti Sanon) and even asks her for a cigarette when he is out of his stock. The film is set in Bareilly, and film critics have hailed this scene as a perfect example of the changing narrative of Indian cinema.

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari

, the director of Bareilly Ki Barfi, who was speaking at a session on ‘Changing the Narratives of Indian Cinema’ at the 8th CII Big Picture Summit in Delhi on Friday, said that the scene in the film shows a progressive father of a small town.

Kriti Sanon and Pankaj Tripathi in a still from 'Bareilly Ki Barfi'Bareilly Ki Barfi portrays progressive parents from small towns:
Ashwiny said that cinema is a reflection of the society we are living in. "We've shown in the film that Bitti is smoking with her father. In the scene, her father says - 'Beta, mujhe koi problem nahin hai tum kya karti ho, tum ko jo karna hai tum karo. Samaj hai, aisa hi hai. Haan, hum usko nahi maante par, rehna to isi samaaj mein hai. What he's saying is - We still live in a society and we have to go by the norms of the society. But you still have the independence to do what's correct for you," she said.

'I can write a screenplay, but dialogues have to come from my writers'
Ashwiny said that the stories from cities like Meerut, Lucknow, and Bhopal are now coming alive on big screen because most film writers are from these small towns. She said, "I have a set of writers, most of them are from Bihar, MP, UP, and I have not been to most of these towns. I can write screenplays, but the dialogues have to come from writers. And when they write I don’t question them. There are some words I don’t understand also- I thought ye 'kulhe pe dimple' ( dialogue from Bareilly Ki Barfi) kya hota hai? And the audience was going berserk on those dialogues."