WHEN Lidia Ostepeev watched her first Bollywood movie, she became instantly addicted.
The Sunshine resident loved the drama and emotions evident in the genre and began putting pen to paper writing reviews for the niche market.
Now six years on, Ms Ostepeev has graduated from reviews to poetic prose and will enter this year’s Brimbank Literary Awards.
The movie buff said despite what many people thought, writing a poem needn’t take months and months of endless writer’s block.
“I don’t force it,” she said.
“I don’t labour over it. I only write when I have something to write about.
“I’ve realised it’s about jotting things down and not procrastinating.”
The teacher said her Ukrainian background had also encouraged her love of the written word.
“As a child, I attended Ukrainian school every Saturday morning.
“We would write and learn patriotic verse.
“Ukrainian stories are very patriotic, fiery and nostalgic. They have a great affinity with poetry.
“There is a strong corroboration with Bollywood films and Ukrainian folklore.”
She said both genres were larger than life, meshed in years of tradition and extremely melodramatic.
For this year’s literary festival, Ms Ostepeev has created a poem set in the exotic east which tells the story of a belly dancer who contracts emphysema and passes away.
Describing the poem as slightly tongue in cheek, she said like Bollywood films, she tried to make the process of dying uplifting.
The Brimbank Literary Awards ceremony will be held on Friday 23 September at Overnewton Castle.
