They Called Me Back: A Story from the Future of Indian Filmmaking

Anand Iyer - They Called Me Back

Introductory Note by Sajeev Varghese

Author of UNLEASHED | Creator of The Filmistan Rewrite Generation Series

I’ve spent over three decades helping global Fortune 500 companies transform—not just their businesses, but the stories they tell themselves and the people who carry those stories forward. And time after time, I’ve learned this: transformation isn’t top-down. It begins in the quiet, personal trenches—where someone dares to believe their story matters.

They Called Me Back is one such story.

It’s fictional, yes. But it’s also heartbreakingly real. Anand Iyer could be anyone: a forgotten screenwriter, an overlooked voice, a craftsman swallowed by the noise of an industry that has long abandoned its storytellers.

But this story is not about loss. It’s about return.

What happens when we build a world where stories—not surnames—decide who gets a seat at the table? Where emotional truth, narrative integrity, and cultural soul become the currency of cinematic success? Where the National Creativity HUB is not just an idea, but the very spine of Indian cinema?

That’s what this short story explores.

That’s what The Rewrite Generation is fighting for.

Let Anand Iyer remind us of the stories we lost—

and the future is still worth writing.

—Sajeev

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🎙 “They Called Me Back”

A First-Person Story by Anand Iyer

I had stopped writing.

Not because I ran out of words—but because I ran out of places to send them.

You see, I once believed I could write stories that mattered. Stories about people who live in silence, who carry the weight of memories like old brass pots: scratched, but gleaming with dignity. I tried. God knows I tried.

I sent scripts to everyone—from tea boys to tycoons—hoping someone would read past the cover page. But Bollywood didn’t want banyan trees and monsoon grief. They wanted punchlines and poster boys. They wanted a "MegaStar" attached to it, even to look at it.

So I stopped. I became a schoolteacher in a small village outside Alappuzha, in Kerala. I told my stories only to children now—at the end of class, under a ceiling fan that groaned more than it spun. They laughed. They cried. Sometimes, they just listened, wide-eyed. That was enough for me.

Or so I told myself.

Until one day, I received a call that changed everything.

The Story That Waited

One of my former students—Niharika—had grown up, studied film, and joined something called the National Creativity HUB. She had found one of my old notebooks during a visit home and… uploaded one of the stories to their platform.

I didn’t even know what that meant. Platforms? Scores? Peer reviews? I thought stories lived in hearts, not databases.

But the story got greenlit. That’s what they said. Greenlit.

For the first few minutes, I thought it was a prank. Then I saw my words—my words—etched on a welcome screen in something called the Rewrite Originals dashboard.

They flew me to Mumbai. Business class. Me, Anand Iyer. No agent. No audition.

Just a notebook and a story called Whispers of the Banyan.

A Room Without Bias

What struck me first wasn’t the building—it was the silence in the story room.

There were no loud egos, no name-dropping. Just creators. Real creators. We spoke of characters like they were real people. We debated themes, not ticket sales. The Rewrite mentors helped me shape the script, yes—but they didn’t dilute it. They deepened it.

For the first time, I wasn’t fighting to prove the value of stillness, or nostalgia, or rootedness. The platform didn’t care who I was. It cared about what I had to say—and how well I said it.

The Day I Saw My Story on the Wall

There’s a wall at the HUB. They call it the Rewrite Wall of Origin. The first lines of iconic Indian films are engraved there, honoring the stories that moved a nation.

I stood there, quietly, when they etched mine:

"Sometimes, the loudest echoes begin under trees that never speak."

I didn’t speak either. I just cried. In that moment, a life that had felt forgotten was suddenly remembered—in gold.

What the HUB Made Possible

The Rewrite platform didn't just “produce” my film.

It respected it.

• It paired me with a director who felt the story before filming it.

• It cast actors who understood the silences between my lines.

• It offered distribution in villages like mine—so that my students could see what we built together.

• It proved, once and for all, that craft can outlast clout.

A Circle That Comes Home

A week after the premiere, I returned to class. One of my students, Meera, raised her hand.

“Sir,” she asked, “when are you writing your next story?”

I smiled.

I was already writing it.

Not on paper. But in this classroom.

At this moment. In her.

🛠️ Final Thought

The National Creativity HUB didn’t just revive a career.

It restored a calling.

It told me: Your voice matters, Anand.

Not because you are famous. But because your story is.

And that’s what Indian Filmmaking 2.0 looks like.

A place where we don’t just make movies.

We remember who we are.

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✨ The Rewrite Has Already Begun

Anand Iyer’s story is fictional—but the future it imagines is within reach.

Across India, thousands of voices like his have gone unheard—screenwriters with depth, actors with soul, filmmakers with vision—silenced by a system built on hierarchy, not merit. But what if we changed the rules of the game?

That’s exactly what UNLEASHED dares to do.

The first book in The Filmistan Rewrite Generation Series, UNLEASHED is not just a corporate thriller—it’s a cinematic call to arms. It marks the beginning of a five-part saga to reclaim our industry’s creative soul—anchored in story-first filmmaking, backed by a future-ready ecosystem, and fueled by storytellers like Anand who never stopped believing.

🎬 If this story moved you, the book will ignite you.

🔗 Visit the Featured Book Page for UNLEASHED

Featured Book Page for UNLEASHED

(Available on Amazon.in, Amazon.com, Pothi.com, and Flipkart – in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle eBook formats.)

Let’s rewrite the story.

Together.