Hailing from a small city, screenplay and dialogue writer Sharad Tripathi came to Mumbai to live his big dreams and today he has managed to achieve most of them. But, his journey does not stop here, as he wants to accomplish a lot more in life and he is sincerely working towards his ambition. We got in touch with this very enthusiastic man and cornered him for an interview for our Behind the Lens segment. Excerpts: Tell us about your journey? I am from Kanpur and was about to get into studying Dentistry when I heard of a talent hunt contest being held by Balaji Telefilms. Incidentally, I happened to be one of the finds of the talent hunt. So, Balaji contracted me for four years providing me lodging and boarding. They trained me as a writer after which I started writing screenplay and dialogues for their shows. I did somewhere around 17 to 18 shows that includes Kkusum, Kya Hoga Nimmo Ka among others. It was only after four years that I moved out of Balaji and that’s exactly when my struggle started. It is so that when you’re a Balaji writer, nobody knows you. So, I had to work on creating my identity and to that end, I did a couple of small-time and regional shows. I must have done somewhere around 30 to 40 shows, till I started getting good work. My last show was Kairi (COLORS)and currently I am writing for Hongey Judaa Na Hum (Sony TV). What are the difficulties that you face as a screenplay and dialogue writer? The biggest issue that any writer faces is that they do not have a fixed work time. So even if you’re in a party and you get a call from the production house saying that they are in urgent need of dialogues, you have to write it for them immediately. Secondly, nobody is ever worried about the actor’s budget but when it comes to paying a writer, they always feel that they are giving away too much. Lastly, there are too many heads trying to tell you what you have to do. They do not want to go with your conviction. You’re also the committee member of FWA (Film & TV Writers Association). What are your responsibilities there? Well, we are there to help writers if they have an issue with a production house or they are being exploited. Currently, we are majorly focusing on the copyright issues that writers face. Hence, we’ve asked all the writers to talk to us before signing any kind of contract. What are the changes you think are needed to be brought in for the writers? As actors have a fixed working time, we too must have fixed working hours. The payment pattern is bad as a writer gets paid only after 90 days of work. And, the worst is that at times, writers aren’t even aware of the fact that they have been replaced. In such a case, the makers must pay the writers their due on their last day itself. As what usually happens is that the writers are just visiting their offices to get their payment. Plus, a lot many times, a writer is asked to rewrite the script with the channel’s interference. In such a case, if he is asked to rewrite more than twice, he must be paid for that separately as he is putting in the same out of hard work yet again. Does the TV industry need some kind of change in the broader perspective? The people here are biased and they create their own opinions about people. They feel if one person has given a hit, he is capable enough of giving good shows, while others aren’t. I think everybody deserves a fair chance. If somebody has struggled and reached where he is today, he must be allowed to showcase his work. What do you plan to do next? Since my school days, I have been very fond of writing and reciting poetries. Sadly, I haven’t done that in seven and a half years that I’ve been in the industry. So, I would like to do that. I am also looking forward to doing stage shows. Let’s see how it goes from here. What about producing shows? I had made a pilot for one of the channels, but the project got stuck because of few reasons. However, I will get back to that soon.