Progressive Writers Group (PWG) have made it again, by winning the FWA (Film Writers Association) Elections held yesterday (17 August) by a thumping margin of 22 out of 23!! ‘Empower the Writer’ was their slogan, and the team which has held office for three consecutive terms promised to finish many unfinished matters that made a difference, if elected for the fourth time. And here they are, to continue the good work they have started. The primary adversary of PWG was a group called The Writers Front helmed by Ashfaque Khopekar, but it did not manage to win any seat. The sole seat apart from PWG went to independent candidate Neeta Kriplani (Associate Member). The PWG winner list is as follows: Jalees Sherwani (President) Vinod Ranganath (Vice President) Danish Javed (Vice President) Kamlesh Pandey (General Secretary) Preiti Mamgain (Treasurer) Manisha Korde (Joint Secretary) Zama Habib (Joint Secretary) Executive Members : Abhijeet Deshpande, Anjum Rajabali, Dhananjay Kumar, Manisha Singh, Manoj Hansraj, Mayur Puri, Rajashree Urf Raju, Rajesh Dubey, Rajita Sharma, Robin Bhatt, Sachin Darekar, Saket Chaudhary, Sanjay Chhel Sanyuktha Chawla Sheikh Associate Member : Pooja Varma Congratulations to all the deserving winners!! Tellychakkar.com contacted Kamlesh Pandey who has been elected as the Hon General Secretary. The man who has a 30 years experience in advertising, television and films expressed his happiness over PWG’s victory stating, “Thank you for the wishes. We had a great win; the response we got at the voting centre was humongous. Usually, there would be a turnaround of 600-700 people. But this time, over 1000 people turned up, and cast their votes. The refreshments of snacks and tea had to be repeated over and over again with people pouring in. To tell you more, this was the first time that instead of ballot machines, EVMs were used for voting purpose. The voting went on very smoothly, and the results were counted in less than half an hour post the voting process. All the members were very happy with the whole voting process.” On the tasks in hand for the elected Progressive Writers Group, Kamlesh said, “We have few major tasks to fulfill. The first is to create a basic minimum contract between film and TV writers and producers. Also, the broad idea is to have the year of 2016 as the Year of Screen Writers, and herald the work throughout India. Also, with us getting writers from the regional sector on board (Marathi, Bhojpuri etc), we intend to address all issues with this spectrum getting bigger.” When contacted, Zama Habib, Writer of the upcoming shows Tum Saath Ho Jab Apne (Sphereorigins show on Sony Pal) and Hum Hain Naa (DJ’s – A Creative Unit show for Sony TV), continued and expressed his vision saying, “Earlier, there used to be many members in the board who are not active. But now, with more and more active writers joining in, the promise to achieve bigger things is more. The win of PWG has been huge, and we now have a huge responsibility to carry forward the unfinished work. We will continue to work towards the Copyright Amendment Act. As you would know, the government amended the act in 2012 in favour of writers. We also want to form the Copyright Society through which the royalties for writers can be collected and distributed.” Way to go, PWG. May you have a good and fruitful term in office!!!