Yash Chopra Fellowship to help youngsters launch in Bollywood

Kolkata: Industry body FICCI will launch a Yash Chopra Fellowship next year to help young scriptwriters realise their Bollywood dream in honour of the legendary filmmaker, who passed away two months ago. "From March we will invite scripts and stories from young scriptwriters all over the country. We will choose 12 of them who would be mentored by veterans in the film industry," Leena Jaisani, Head of FICCI`s entertainment division, told reporters here. The selected scriptwriters would be trained by veterans Salim Khan of the famed Salim-Javed duo, Jaideep Sahni, who has worked in blockbusters like `Chak De! India` and `Khosla Ka Ghosla` and Anjum Rajabali of `Aarakshan` and `Raajneeti` fame over a period of eight-nine months. "We will even invite some experts from outside the country. Workshops will be held with them in different cities where the shortlisted scripts would be fine-tuned according to the needs of the industry," Jaisani said. Once the young brigade is ready with their final script, FICCI will help them approach some of the best production houses in the country. "We will help them to take their first steps in Bollywood. It was planned initially by the late producer-director Yash Chopra but after he passed away we decided the name the fellowship after him as a tribute," Jaisani said. The iconic filmmaker was the chairman of the FICCI Entertainment Committee for more than a decade. PTI