When Mani Ratnam began a career in films, there was one line he constantly heard: Content is God!. He later realised why they said it. "It's because we're not sure if it's there or not."

The ace film maker did not elaborate on his search for this elusive "God". But the script -- or the lack of it -- was the star at a session on Succesful Film Content for the Future: A Debate between leading Indian Film Personalities.

Secrets revealed

Kunal Kohli kicked off the session with a cheeky presentation that revealed how a film is made today. A filmmaker goes to a studio with a bright idea and script. The panel of 'experts' at the studio evaluate the script, does the math and approach the star of the season. The star and the studio hijack the plot, with the filmmaker and his vision becoming a small part of the final product.

The large part of the budget of a film, says Kohli, is spent on stars, and not on the content. "To quote Yash Chopra, films don't fail. It's the budgets that fail."

Magadheera director S S Rajamouli hoped Indian films would soon become worldwide blockbusters -- and work magic like what Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon did for China.

Blame it all on the bad script

Shailendra Singh, Joint MD, Percept Limited, the odd man out in the panel, wanted to know why Hindi cinema has a failure rate of 92 per cent. While he blamed bad marketing and bad economics, scriptwriter Anjum Rajabali put the blame on the elephant in the room that we continue to ignore: A bad script. He lamented that India does not recognise screen-writing or script reading enough -- and they're not even part of film school curriculum.

The moderator of the session, Govind Nihlani, asked the four filmmakers on the panel to pick out one factor which has changed for Indian cinema in the last 20 years.

The major irritant for Rajamouli was the tendency to force-fit songs at the expense of the script.

Where's the common man?

Kunal Kohli thought it was the disappearance of the common man from Hindi cinema. Although he hastened to add that he himself had not had the aam aadmi as a hero in any of the four films he's made so far -- 'except Fanaa, where Aamir Khan plays a tourist guide."

Anjum used a quote to explain his stance: "A hero like Dilip Kumar had to be legally, morally and emotionally correct to be accepted by the audience. Amitabh Bachchan had to be morally and emotionally correct. By the time it was the turn of Shah Rukh Khan to rule, the hero just had to be emotionally correct."

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He put it down to the changing character of the Indian middle class, and the disappearance of politics from mainstream cinema. "Everyone just wants to be amused by cinema, not engaged."

Tamil cinema's splendid performance

Mani Ratnam remained the sole positive voice. "Tamil cinema has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. So many new filmmakers have moved in from small towns and they are making films that are more real than ever."

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When an aspiring director in the audience interrupted to beg him to reveal the 'formula' of his success, Mani retorted: "It's a secret!"The fan wouldn't let go. Until Kunali Kohli hopped in with the last word: "When Mani Sir started out, he didn't ask for a formula for success. He created it."