Qalam 2001 : Rajendra Singh

Participants also got an insight into the legal aspects of scriptwriting from Film Writers’ Association’s Rajendra Singh, who spoke of the problems faced by Indian scriptwriters. Most do not sign contracts with production houses, are often not given credits, and are sometimes not paid on time.

Maintaining that scripts are a writer’s intellectual property, Singh said that the association safeguards interests of writers by getting producers to give writer their dues on time.

The association registers screenplays, concepts and dialogues of writers and updates members about laws and changing regulations. Writers cannot be changed midway through a serial, he informed, without the permission of the earlier writer. Again, production houses have just one year’s rights on the writer’s script, after which it can be reclaimed, he said.