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EXCLUSIVE: With the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike getting into its second month within the U.S., writers and filmmakers all over the world are being attentive to how these points play out in their very own international locations.

In India, dwelling to a number of large movie industries and an OTT manufacturing increase, native expertise company Tulsea and knowledge agency Ormax Media have performed a survey of Indian writers that reveals fault strains throughout a number of areas. 

While 65% of surveyed writers stated pay ranges have improved lately, 63% imagine they aren’t being paid pretty, with timeliness of funds impacting 47% of writers immediately. 

The survey, ‘The Right Draft: 2023’, additionally discovered that 53% of writers are dissatisfied with the credit score they obtain for his or her work, with that determine rising to as a lot as 80% for credit in some areas of selling and promotion. 

Other areas explored by the survey embody high quality and timeliness of suggestions; the significance that producers place on scripts vis-à-vis stars within the theatrical and OTT industries; the expansion of writers’ rooms; and entry to mentoring, grievance redressal and different types of trade assist. 

“Some results matched our expectations, some startled us,” stated Tulsea’s Radhika Gopal in a prologue to the report. “On the optimistic facet, throughout just a few parameters, the writers we surveyed did observe that issues are higher than they was once just a few years in the past. 

“However, overall the message is clear – there is much that we, as an industry, need to do to make our writers feel truly empowered, valued, enabled, and respected.”

The survey was performed with 217 movie and collection writers in India, working throughout Hindi, English and South Indian-language initiatives, of which 70% have been male and 30% feminine. Writers aged between 31-40 have been the most important age group at 44%.

The writers have been additionally requested in the event that they believed a hybrid pay mannequin – comprising a mixture of mounted pay and incentive/bonus – would inspire them to do higher work and create a stronger sense of possession of the challenge. While 91% of surveyed writers agreed, lower than a 3rd had ever been a part of a contract negotiation the place such phrases have been mentioned. 

Writers additionally stated the standard of suggestions varies enormously throughout the events they acquired it from – with administrators and showrunners offering the perfect suggestions, however low ranges of satisfaction with the suggestions supplied by manufacturing homes, OTT platforms and TV channels. 

However, the OTT increase does seem like having a optimistic influence by way of the worth positioned on scripts and the rise of the writers’ room. The survey discovered that 76% of writers imagine OTT platforms worth scripts greater than or equally to stars, whereas solely 10% assume that’s the case with theatrical producers. 

When requested if writers’ rooms allow change of concepts and result in higher high quality of labor, 74% of writers both strongly or considerably agreed, whereas solely 5% strongly disagreed. 

In different findings, solely 30% of writers imagine they’ve entry to good mentors within the trade, and solely 37% stated they’ve entry to related trade our bodies for grievance addressal. When requested in the event that they’d confronted discrimination of their careers, 37% of writers agreed, with gender/sexuality, largely in opposition to girls, the most important reason for discrimination. 

Commenting on the report, showrunner and author Sudip Sharma (Paatal Lok) stated: “The Ormax-Tulsea Writers Report reconfirms what I, as a screenwriter working for the last two decades, feel on an intuitive level about the state of screenwriters and screenwriting in the Hindi film industry. A lot has changed over these years, mostly for the better, and yet, there are significant areas in which we still lag behind Hollywood, especially important issues like performance linked payments, credits, and recognition.”

Sunayana Kumari, whose writing credit embody Dahaad and Berlinale Series entry Brown, stated: “While I may need romanticised the concept of being a journeyman, in all honesty, we’d like an overhaul. There must be a shift in perspective in the direction of writers, and a system the place writers aren’t solely compensated and credited pretty but in addition championed. Less, ‘can you give us what we want?’ and extra, ‘what is it that you want to say and how do you want to say it?’ please.

“I’ve also been noticing a pattern in our industry,” Kumari continued. “There’s a tendency to sideline writers after their work is over. Our shows will get a lot better if the writers are also able to enjoy the success of something that they’ve helped create.” 

India’s Screenwriters Association (SWA) recently expressed its support for the WGA strike and is within the means of drafting a Minimum Basic Contract for its members and initiating negotiations with producers on commonplace clauses.