Writers, especially film writers
are a rare breed. Unlike novelists their work does not get translated to
different languages so they do not have admirers showering accolades on them
across the globe. Their intellectual properties i.e. scripts they pen down do
not insure a constant influx of money either for them or their families.
Instead of literate publishing houses the novelists deal with, they have to go
about their business with hawkish money making tendencies of ruthless corporate
and individual motion picture producers. The last and the most terrible thing,
they need to focus more on public relations than their writing because who
needs a good writer when movies are sailing on dance numbers and the star
power.
An
idea may be the seed of theories, doctrines, revolutions, novels, short
stories, a poem or a movie, that is the beauty of an idea. But a film writer
knows the dangers of an idea better than anybody else. Why? Because anybody can
have an idea; from an executive producer or the CEO of the company to a distant
relative of a veteran cinematographer can have his or her own idea about which
they are very excited. The trouble is they expect a film writer to develop this
wonderful idea of theirs in to an equally wonderful screenplay without an
advance pay cheque. The poor film writer is left contemplating either to gamble
a minimum period of a month during which he would be borrowing money to put it
in someone else’s ‘idea’ or to simply say ‘no’ on the peril of ruining his
relationship with the people. They famously say in Mumbai “never say no to
anybody”.
Problems of the film writers magnify many folds when the context is
Indian. Though the Film Writers’ Association is coming up, they are still
nowhere close to the organizations such as the Writers’ Guild of America in their
ferocity in protecting the rights of fellow writers. So the intellectual copyrights of a film
writer are not guarded as stringently as they should be. The guess is they are
not going to be for a very long time because film writers are supposed to
comply at the smallest gesture and start throwing their ideas on the coffee
tables of Baristas’, Costa’s or Café coffee days. They do not have agents to
promote their talent so that they can go back to their comfortable spaces and
work in peace. They need to be on the walking distance may be a phone call
away, always. No money! So where is the question of settling down? Trapped in
their emotional and financial insecurities they become timid, depressed and
coward which leads them to agree to work on any condition even if it means
cutting the throats of their own fellow writers.
But the picture
has not always been this gloomy. The brightest and the most promising example
of hope has been the duo of “Salim-Javed”. For the 23 Hindi movie scripts they
penned down together during a decade and half of their alliance, they changed
the way the writers were perceived. Their doggedness to fight for their rights
was unparallel. Who but they could go around riding a rikshaw and paint their
names on the film posters they had written and thus creating a brand name for
themselves which at the time glistened brighter than the stars. Never before or
after has anybody seen screen writers demanding a share in the profit of the
movies they wrote. It was the confidence in their work and the ethics they
attached to their demands for what they deserved that can be the shining post
for thousands who are tackling their ghosts of creativity sitting solitarily
and diving deeper into their sub conscious so that they can write well and the
movie viewers could be served well. Let them not demand a share in the profit
but they deserve dignity, respect and a pay cheque if they are good at what
they do.
