Producers come together and force ITA to recognize efforts of TV writers

Television writers have always felt ignored when it came desired recognition from the fraternity at official platforms like award shows. All attention and respect goes to the stars while their efforts in creating the very story which make actors stars are hardly talked about. Last year when ITA (Indian Television Academy) had not included script writers category in their awards, Madhubala- Ek Ishq Ek Junoon’s writer Gautam Hedge had written a big public post about the same on Facebook. It seems that the hurt sentiments of the writers have touched a chord in the heart of their producers. Hence this year, when ITA again invited nominations from producers for various categories from their respective shows, Madhubala and Do Dil... Ek Jaan producer Saurabh Tewary asked for a category of script writers to be included. Saurabh Tewari (Nautanki Telefilms) tells us exactly what happened, “The organizers then declined my above request saying there is no story in daily soaps, so there is no need to honour script writers.” “At that time I decided to stand up for my writers who are the building block of any show. Even in films the writers are given due credit. Accordingly I decided to withdraw both my above mentioned shows from the award nominations. I knew that pulling out Do Dil might not create a buzz, but Madhubala’s absence might affect the awards in terms of glitz and glam.” “I was soon supported in my just cause by other producers like Gul Khan (4 Lions Films), Neelima Bajpai (Shakuntalam Telefilms) and Sumeet Mittal (Shashi Sumeet Productions Pvt Ltd) who decided to withdraw Qubool Hai, Sapne Suhane Ladakpan Ke and Diya Aur Baati from the awards as well,” continued Saurabh. (For information, Shakuntalam produces Sapne Suhane, 4 Lions Qubool Hai and Shashi Sumeet Diya Aur Baati). “Obviously this combined pressure took its toll and in a bid to save the awards which would have been a damp squib in absence of such big popular shows, the organizers caved in and sent us a mail informing us that that they will have a script writer’s category as well. Since we got what we wanted we then decided to finally submit entries of our show,” ended Saurabh. Here we would like to mention that sometime back Kamlesh Pandey, General Secretary of Film Writers’ Association, wrote a letter to us sharing their angst against ITA for “humiliating and hurting television writers” by not recognizing their efforts. (Check the pic above for the copy of the letter). Tellychakkar.com applauds the effort of the television fraternity, especially producers, for coming together for those who matter the most, the writers who weave shows via their magical words. Kudos!!!