Screenwriter Anjum Rajabali says producers ‘treat stars like nawabs’: Big stars have 12-13 spotboys, even their drivers are paid, but no surety writers will get their fee | Bollywood News

Anjum Rajabali has been spearheading a movement to get screenwriters their due. The writer of Ghulam (1998), Pukar (2000), and Rajneeti (2010), he has been instrumental in fetching writers both fair credit and fair pay in the Hindi film industry. As the head of the Screenwriters Association of India, he also holds the SWA Annual Screenwriting Workshop in India, the latest edition of which took place in Mumbai this week. In an exclusive interview with SCREEN, Anjum talks about the correlation between the status of screenwriter and the state of cinema today, measures that must be taken to empower the pen, and how rising star and entourage fees must be fixed.
You must have heard of the dialogue,  “Writer baap hota hai” from Superboys of Malegaon. When we reached out to the co-writer Varun Grover for an interview, he said, “Not a lot of people have seen it. Let’s wait for it to release on Prime Video.” When the writer who’s written that line is himself so despondent, do you really feel the writer is the baap today?The bigger challenge being faced, humanity itself, is that we tend to lose sight of the basics. There’s cruelty and kindness, compassion and indifference. Building the other constructs is basically a way of propaganda powerful people of the world to ensure you don’t see it as black and white. But usually, it’s all black and white. Likewise, if you come to the film industry, what is it that the audience is coming there for? They’re coming for the basics. If the character is a coward, is he going to continue to be a coward? Even if the stakes are high? What does that make him? You really love that girl? How far will you go for her? Now, these are very simple questions, which stories bring out. Therein comes the writer.
Kya writer baap hota hai? Hota hai. Kya usey uss tareeke se treat kiya ja raha hai? Nahi. So I’m not saying you have to see the person in some intimidating and authoritarian way. Not at all. But the point is you have to respect his work which is binding all the things together. All the 300 people working for the film are primarily working for him. We’ve become to fatally lose sight of that basic truth. Hence you have studio executives and others part of the decision-making chain begin to look at extraneous factors like data. You cannot do an analysis.  Creativity, itself, within itself, carries the risk. The more the audience disengages with your product, the more anxious you become. The more anxious you are, you start falling back on what’s worked.
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So it’s a vicious cycle. How do you break out of that?You break that cycle when you run out of all options, which is what we do in a screenplay. The hero, she finally leaps to take the action which is effective only when she’s run out of all options. Because that’s the most difficult option. Taking the risk is the most difficult option. Everybody loves their job. The best way out is to enable people to do their best with a little understanding of cinema. Allow them to do that.
You were one of the first ones to ins on a contract for a screenwriter gig. Corporates coming in empowered their legal rights streamlining contracts, but do you think they’ve also damaged their prospects creatively?When the corporates came in, we were hopeful that now, things will be systematic, and they did. But they’re profit-making entities. If the writer had to be thrown to the dogs for that, so be it. That attitude even became even more systematic. Through the very same contracts, they’d wire up the writer. The kind of indemnities we’re supposed to give, it’s outrageous. The writer can be fired anytime, there isn’t a surety of credit or payment. You can fire him after the first draft. You could say  I don’t approve of the first draft so I can fire you. But there’s no approval of the first draft, approval is only on the final draft.
If the writing community is not organized, there’s no unity, then there are broken ranks. Which is why the union has become so active now, realising that collective bargain has become so important now. We had to build credibility for years to prove that we’re not rabble-rousers, we can negotiate. Most corporates are MNCs, they’re hugely powerful, they have unimaginable power. Which is why they feel the writers need them more than they need the writers. But the truth is the needs are mutual. Without a writer, there’s no script. These MNCs also deal with American writers, but they’re united under SGA (Screenwriters Guild of America). Those same people who agree with them will ins on not doing the same here because they believe they can get away with it.
The guidelines say that a writer must be paid at least Rs 4 lakh for the story, screenplay, and dialogues respectively. Does that also apply to indie filmmakers who may not have the budget to shell out as much?Without exception, all production houses approach the writer saying that they don’t have budgets. If there’s a genuine indie film, all we ask is pick up the phone and reach out to SWA. We can discuss and make an exception. The last thing we want is indie filmmakers also exploit writers. How much are asking for a full script? Rs 13 lakh, which is ridiculous! Javed Akhtar was so happy with and proud of all the other clauses I’d spoken of, asked me when I told him this fees, “Ye aapne kya kar diya?” I had to explain to him that we’re still working towards a breakthrough. It’s not just the big production houses you and I have dealt with, but there are others with less budget (Rs 3-4 crore) making films with a non-star cast. How can I ask them to pay every writer Rs 25 lakh?Story continues below this ad
But if they eventually do sign a star, then the compensation can be demanded and a complaint can be filed in the court. So, I understand. But indie filmmakers should be grateful. The most important component in a small-budget film is the script. The tighter it is, the less they’ll have to shoot and reshoot. So invest well in the writer, they’re your foundation. They’re making the whole film for you, you just have to execute it. They won’t pay the writer, but would be ready to pay the star. Every star who appears on screen has at least two spotboys. If they’re bigger, than there are 12-13. You even pay the makeup art Rs 75,000 a day. How will the film work if you’re investing in all the wrong departments?
(Also Read — Writer baap hota hai… I’m glad this line is initiating a conversation about screenwriters: Reema Kagti)
But I’m sure even the producers know that. But to tell a star who’s getting them the eyeballs that they’re deducting their pay to compensate the writer, isn’t that easier said than done? How do they communicate the need for this shift?It’s absolutely easier said than done. With all the huge money you’re pouring into the star, they deliver flop after flop. Today, big stars don’t have work because the producers can’t afford them. The producers, as a body, get together and realise within themselves some ground rules. They tell the star that we can pay you this much, you can decide within that how much entourage you can pack in. Do I ask the producer to pay my driver if I write for them? The producer would say I’m mad. They can tell me off, right? Likewise, all producer bodies should have a national meeting and say enough is enough. Are the stars nawabs? Well, they’ve been treated like nawabs so they’ll behave like nawabs.