The actor, lyricist and musician Piyush Mishra says in the foreword of his memoir: “I don’t have the courage to write an autobiography. Neither do I have the temperament. Nor the mood.” Tumhari Auqaat Kya Hai, Piyush Mishra, translated from the Hindi by Shillpi A Singh, is in the voice of the invented character Santap Trivedi alias Hamlet, from one of Mishra’s most well-known plays. Mishra also uses pseudonyms for several well-known actors and directors, such as “Nadeem Shah”, “Samar Bajpayee”, “Aniket Kashyap” and “Sambal Bharadwaj”.

In this excerpt, Mishra writes about fighting for a credit on his first film as a screenwriter, which he says was adapted from his own play about Bhagat Singh.

When he returned to Mumbai, a car took him directly from the airport to the producer’s office. Upon arriving, he discovered that the entire film crew had assembled for a big meeting. Representatives from all departments, including production, direction, costumes, camera, set and more were present. He learned that it was the day of the final script narration. He took out his script and held it in his hands. Everyone was seated inside. The ‘healthy’ director started …

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