Screenwriters discuss crisis of creativity, need for original content

The rise of over-the-top (OTT) platforms in India had made filmmakers, actors and screenwriters believe that they had found a goose laying golden eggs but it is now time for a reality check. Alongside the opportunity to tell stories that may not be commercially viable on the big screen but lend themselves to home viewing, there are challenges to be dealt with. 

“There is no independent-minded funding in this country. Reality has to be sanitised. Few people want to fund projects that look at identity and gender. It is hard to make films in line with your beliefs, politics and values,” said filmmaker and screenwriter Neeraj Ghaywan of Masaan (2015) Sacred Games (2018) and Geeli Pucchi (2021) fame at the seventh edition of the Indian Screenwriters Conference (ISC) hosted by the Screenwriters Association of India at the Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir in Bandra in Mumbai last month.  

There is a price to pay for holding on to one’s integrity. Megha Ramaswamy, who wrote and directed What Are the Odds (2019) and Lalannas Song (2022), said: “When you experiment with form, you are told that your work is eccentric and nobody is going to fund it in India. You cannot rely only on European funding; it might come once in five years.” However, being released from the burden of delivering a hit at the box office opened up new avenues. “Actors who are more willing to experiment are ready to collaborate with you,” she added. 

The frequent calls to regulate and censor content on OTT, especially from quarters citing hurt to religious sentiments, also seem to have made creators wary of taking risks. Dibakar Banerjee, who co-wrote and directed Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 (2024), pointed out that “there is an elephant in the room called the dominant ideology” and that filmmakers are being asked to create “addiction” rather than entertainment or engagement to increase viewership numbers.  

Screenwriter Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh, who has worked on projects like Neerja (2016) and Aarya (2020) revealed that OTT platforms have bec­ome “kosher and tone-sensitive”, while Anand Tiwari—who co-wrote and directed Bandits Bandits 2 (2024)—admitted that abusive language was removed from the screenplay because “it is a family show”. The decision was made to ensure that family members of different generations can sit together and watch it, and not as a result of self-censorship or an external demand to suppress creative freedom. 

That said, there is a crisis of creativity. Niren Bhatt, who wrote Munjya (2024) and Stree 2 (2024), pointed out that Bollywood's obsession with remakes has not met with commercial success. “Out of 25 remakes post-pandemic, 23 are flops. The only way to succeed is to make original content,” he remarked. Kanika Dhillon, who wrote Manmarziyaan (2018), Judgementall Hai Kya (2019) and Haseen Dilruba (2021), said: “When I came in, it was a star-driven system. The least amount of spotlight was on the script. Today, even superstars cannot guarantee footfalls. Actors are asking, ‘Kahaani kya hai?’(What is the story?).” She explained that audiences have more access and exposure to global talent. “If you don’t give them value for their money, they’ll watch Korean films. Only originality will save you.” 

Kiran Rao, who wrote and directed Laapataa Ladies (2024), India’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars, shared that her education at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, taught her to be aware of what images do and how art can contribute to a broader social discourse. “We usually think of a blockbuster as something daft but it doesn’t have to be that way. Filmmaking is a massive enterprise with many people and much money riding on it. We cannot be complacent.” She added that the film business had contracted. “How do we adapt to a wor­ld that has lower attention spans on the one hand but also has people like my son who can be immersed in a video game for three hours at a stretch? We need to learn from gaming,” she said. 

 

According to Meghna Pant, the demand for fresh and engaging content has “democratiaed storytelling, allowing diverse voices and unconventional narratives to thrive without the constraints of mainstream Bollywood formulas”. She is the author of the novels Boys Don’t Cry (2022) and The Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Good News (2021). Pant is adapting these novels for the screen, and has written three original feature screenplays. The shift from novels to screenwriting is making her “think more cinematically” and compelling her to upskill to “master screenplay structure, character arcs, and nuances of visual storytelling”.  

The 25,618-member strong Screenwriters Association of India, formed in 1954 and officially registered in 1960, is a trade union of screenwriters and lyricists who work for films, television and digital media. Authors, playwrights and journalists looking to join this industry are also members of the association. Screenwriter Mitesh Shah, who worked on Tumbbad (2018) and Helicopter Eela (2018), and was the convenor of this year’s Indian Screen­writers Conference said: “The aim was to dispel some fears and myths around what the future of screenwriting could look like and to lend actionable inputs and tools to tell our stories better.” He spoke of the forum as “a think-tank between peers, to share experiences”. 

American screenwriter Chris Keyser, former president of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and co-chair of the WGA’s negotiating committee during the historic 2023 WGA strike, was the chief guest at the conference. He advised Indian screenwriters to protect themselves by “banding together” because “collective action can protect screenwriters from loss of income, and the disempowering fear that you will be punished if you ask for more”.  

Keyser was in conversation with Anjum Rajabali, who heads the screenwriting department at the Mumbai-based film school Whistling Woods International and also chairs the Copyright Society registered with the Government of India since December 2024. While it has “no enforcement authority or jurisdiction”, Rajabali said that it “serves as a mediating body” to protect screenwriters against plagiarism and safeguard their right to receive royalties.  

Aspiring as well as established screenwriters can also find a sense of community by joining The Screenwriting Corner, an initiative co-founded by screenwriter and script mentor Siddhant Makkar in January 2023. Participants gather once a month at a coffee shop in Mumbai to read and discuss screenplays. “One of the best ways to hone your craft is to read a wide range of screenplays—both the great ones and the not-so-great ones,” he mentioned.  

Speaking of craft, Darab Farooqui, who wrote Notebook (2019) and Ae Watan Mere Watan (2024) emphasised that screenwriters need to go beyond telling stories of upper caste and upper-class people that “have no connection to large numbers of people in the country”. Prateek Vats, who co-wrote and co-directed Jal Tu Jalaal Tu (2024), was of the opinion that sometimes filmmakers “try to become socially relevant in a very convoluted way”. Instead of batting for films where the storytelling suffers from a script that is message-heavy, he noted, “When more kinds of people make films, there will be greater diversity in the filmmaking.” 

Screenwriters are not only searching for new concepts but also rewriting the rules of the industry. Shortly, after the conference, the SWA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Music Composers Association of India (MCAI) with the aim of “fostering stronger collaboration between music composers, lyricists, and screenwriters”. According to this MOU, music directors and lyricists are “equal as co-authors” as they collaborate in the creation of songs. Both are to be considered “primary artists” for credits. 

Recent news reports also indicate that members of the Screenwriters Association of India have met with leading production houses, OTT streaming platforms and television channels to discuss standardisation of screenwriters’ contracts to ensure moral rights to the script, fair payment for their work, and prominent credits on all the publicity material along with film directors and producers.