Indian Telly Technical Awards: In conversation with Sadda Haq co-writer Sumrit Shahi

MUMBAI: Many of us still prefer television shows to internet series. Telly actors leave a powerful impact on the audiences with their characters and personalities.

The actors receive appreciation for their work on various platforms, but audiences sometimes sideline the efforts made by the technicians who work endlessly to make a particular project successful. In order to recognize their efforts, IndianTelevision.com presents to you the 15th edition of the Indian Telly Technical Trade and Programming Awards.

We got in touch with young writer Sumrit Shahi to gain an insight into his profession.

Sumrit has projects like Veera, Sadda Haq, and Million Dollar Girl to his credit. He feels that writing for a daily soap is a challenging task. He shares, ‘Writing for a daily is more challenging than difficult, owing to the simple fact that one has to churn 22 minutes of content every day. In that sense, the idea is to be consistent.’

We asked him if the TRPs affect the storyline or writing patterns, to which the young writer replied, ‘Yes. And no. It'd be wrong to state that TRPs don't matter. For commercial reasons, they do. But a good writer always knows how to retain their core ideas and thoughts and how to play around with them if external forces threaten to shake them.’

When asked about the favourite character he has written so far, he answered, ‘Avanti, from Million Dollar Girl (Channel V). An ambitious middle class girl who had no qualms stealing from her own mother's purse knowing that one day, she'd double her money. She was politically incorrect but emotionally correct.’

Unlike others, Sumrit had a smooth entry into the telly world. He shared, ‘God's been kind. Apart from being an outsider, I feel I've been very lucky to have it comparatively way easier. I was offered my first TV show before I came to Mumbai. Yash and Mamta Patnaik (Beyond Dreams) were looking for young authors who hadn't done TV earlier and I got contacted for the same. My debut show Sadda Haq did amazingly well, and ever since then, it's been a good journey.’

Sumrit has a message for aspiring writers: ‘Aspiring writers should read a lot. Also interact and observe. The idea is to find the next story in the stranger sitting next to you.’