Scriptwriter Titien Wattimena has faced ups and downs writing screen adaptations of best-selling novels.

Known for heart-melting films, Titien is currently writing a screenplay adapted from the novel Kamu Sekuat Aku (You Are As Strong As Me), which tells of a woman who questions the existence of God because when she is struggling with cancer, her boyfriend cheats on her and her dear grandfather passes away.

“Adapting novels into screenplays is difficult because it cannot deviate from the original content,” she said.

Titien started her scriptwriting career in 2004 with the friendship drama Mengejar Matahari (Chasing the Sun) directed by Rudi Soedjarwo. She has written screenplays for more than 20 films and TV dramas and at least 10 of them are adaptations of novels.

She recently completed work on romance-drama Winter in Tokyo, which stars actors Dion Wiyoko and Morgan Oey and is slated to hit theaters in August. It took her five months to write the screenplay, which is adapted from Ilana Tan’s best-selling novel of the same title.

Compared to her previous novel adaptations, Winter in Tokyo was easier to make, Titien said, because it was written using language that could be easily visualized on the big screen.

Such visual language helped her imagine the film when she was reading the novel, she said, adding that she went to Tokyo last December for field observation and research, two necessary steps for a scriptwriter before they start working.

“I am quite confident with my work for Winter in Tokyo,” she said.

The film tells the story of a street photographer who tries to find his true love after suffering memory loss due to a tragedy in Tokyo, Japan.

Titien is curious about the response Winter in Tokyo will receive because when novel, especially a best-selling one, is adapted into a film, its readers compare what they see on the big screen to what they’ve read. If they find something different, they are not worried about airing criticisms.

“I always get backlash every time a new film of mine is released,” said Titien, who was nominated for the Piala Citra in the Best Screenplay category for Mengejar Matahari in 2004, Tentang Dia (About Her) in 2005 and ? in 2011.

Titin believes films adapted from books are not necessarily similar to their original versions.

 When writing screenplays, she says, a scriptwriter sometimes creates changes, ranging from adding new scenes to overlooking parts of the book if when necessary.       

For the religious-themed film Di Bawah Lindungan Ka’bah (Under the Shade of Kaaba), released in 2011, for example, she added many new scenes because its novel, written by prominent writer Buya Hamka in 1938, was too thin and without such changes, she could not have reached the minimum standard for a film’s duration.

The new scenes, nonexistent in the book, also helped to convey the feelings of the characters in the film, even if they do not change the main storyline.

 “I was very careful [when making the screenplay for Hamka’s novel] because it is a classic literary work and the language used in it is difficult to understand. I had to look for different words with similar meanings,” she said, adding that she took two years to write it.

Titien understands when book readers are disappointed about changes that she has made in her adaptations of novels.

 She herself is not yet ready to watch films adapted from her favorite books because she is also afraid of changes probably made by their directors and scriptwriters. For example, she has never watched films adapted from comic book series Astérix and Tintin.

 “I haven’t even watched Life of Pi,” the comic lover said of the Academy Award-winning film adapted from a Canadian fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel. “Because I really love the book.”

 Criticism rarely gets her offended or angry as long as they are appropriately channeled to her. “If they are posted on social media by some people who actually knows me and can criticize me directly, I will be very sad.”

 Titien says film producers are interested in best-selling or very famous books because they believe huge numbers of the books’ readers will be attracted to the film version. One of her films, the friendship-themed Negeri Van Oranje (The Country of Orange), adapted from a novel of the same title drew around 500,000 viewers after its release last December.

Producers often come to her to offer new books. However, she does not always say yes. “I have rejected [script writing offers] five times,” said the 39-year-old writer, who graduated from the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) with a major in film directing.

 She says that she will not write screenplays for a book she does not like or for a book whose writer she feels will not agree with changes she might make. In 2007, for example, she refused to make a screenplay adaptation of the novel Badai Pasti Berlalu (Storm Will Pass) after its writer, Marga T., forbid her from making even the slightest changes.

 For her, communicating with book writers is important not only to ask their permission for aspects of the adaptation but also for holding brainstorming sessions.

 Titien advises everyone interested in being a scriptwriter to study at a film school or take a course at a training center.

Meanwhile, for new scriptwriters interested in adapting books, she says, “You first have to fall in love with the novels. If not, don’t take [the script writing offers]. That’s the most important thing.”

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