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Do you how much a successful writer can earn for one film?
By: Tupaki Desk | 21 Feb 2022 12:01 PM
Telugu Film Industry has become an organisation that produces 100 to 150 films per year on top of the web-series, OTT related content, TV shows, TV series and exclusive TV content, Radio content. The demand for quality writers has increased but do they get paid handsomely though?
This question has become pertinent in Telugu Cinema as writers started to become directors and directors decided to write their own stories, scripts, giving rise to the trend of Writer-directors.
Each person used to go to a producer, introduce himself or herself as writer-director and then rope in "assistants", "co-writers", "ghost writers" to complete the task. Producers used to pay more than regular director and writer's income to them and that used to save them extra exposure to manpower and additional burden in travel expenses, lodging and food expenses.
A good percentage of that amount used to go to these writer-directors'. Looking at this trend, writers who had ambitions to direct started testing their luck and writers who thought they were being abused by directors by not giving them credit also tried their luck to become directors.
Hence, we have more number of Writer-directors than any other industry. Trivikram Srinivas, Sukumar, Koratala Siva can be shown as prominent examples for writers who became directors with big ambitions.
People who started their careers as writers like Paruchuri Brothers, Diwakar Babu, Omkar, LB Sriram, MVS Harnath Rao, MS Narayana, Tanikella Bharani, Satyamurthy, Satyanand, Yandamuri Veerendranath, Sanjeev, Ganesh Patro became directors and actors due to the change in trend by the mid-1990's.
Except for Paruchuri Brothers, Tanikella Bharani none of the other writers had ambitions to become actors or directors from the first day. They all had good theatre/stage experience but they did acting jobs as well as the pay used to be very less for writers. MS Narayana, MVS Harnath Rao, LB Sriram, Omkar gave up on writing after becoming popular as actors.
Yandamuri Veerendranath after turning into director and encountering a flop, decided to shift his focus to career oriented books writing. A very senior writer like Gollapudi Maruthi Rao also turned into an actor after writing 100 films as acting kept him handsomely paid and more busy.
Ganesh Patro, Diwakar Babu, Satyanand, Satyamurthy stayed as writers for most of their career and could demand a respectable amount as their films used to work at the box office. Jandhyala, Paruchuri Brothers acquired star status as writers after Pingali Nagendra Rao, Senior Samudrala, Junior Samudrala, Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry, Acharya Athreya, Arudra. Telugu producers used to pay them handsomely and wait for the scripts written by them.
Scenario changed by mid-90's and even a very sincere and successful writer like Posani Krishna Murali had to turn into a director and then an actor, later. Trivikram Srinivas is the only exception in modern times to be considered as the star writer.
He could fill in a theatre just on his name as a writer and that helped him become a director too. His films like Swayamvaram, Nuvve Kavali, Nuvvu Naaku Nacchav, Manmadhudu, Malliswari made him an important part of a blockbuster combination with director K. Vijaya Bhaskar. He could demand Rs. 1 crore as remuneration even as a writer in early 2000's.
Still, the situation for writers did not improve. Directors and writers either did not co-ordinate properly or credit sharing, revenue sharing became a huge ego issue. Hence, writer-director trend picked up.
Now, the trend seems to be dying down slowly with the emergence of new generation and different creative outlets. Producers are happy to pay writers for screenplay credits and give director the job of directing only and pay handsomely for that too.
Writers like Burra Sai Madhav, Prasanna Kumar, Lakshmi Bhupal, Vakkantham Vamsi are drawing close to 80 lakhs per project minimum for their creative inputs. Vakkantham Vamsi could demand Rs. 2 -3 crores at the height of his popularity.
Lakshmi Bhupal, Prasanna Kumar are getting close to 75 lakhs per project and they are working on Godfather, Ravi Teja's Dhamaka, respectively. Burra Sai Madhav is said to be getting upto one crore. He is writing RRR, Gopichand Malineni next, Ram Charan - Shankar film, Krish's Hari Hara Veera Mallu to name a few. Ravi Teja is endorsing Pushpa writer Srikanth Vissa and the young writer could join these big stars soon in terms of remuneration.
If you would like to become a writer, understand that it is tough to gain confidence of producers, directors but once you do, you can demand what you wish for, within the budgets and market value permutations & combinations.
This question has become pertinent in Telugu Cinema as writers started to become directors and directors decided to write their own stories, scripts, giving rise to the trend of Writer-directors.
Each person used to go to a producer, introduce himself or herself as writer-director and then rope in "assistants", "co-writers", "ghost writers" to complete the task. Producers used to pay more than regular director and writer's income to them and that used to save them extra exposure to manpower and additional burden in travel expenses, lodging and food expenses.
A good percentage of that amount used to go to these writer-directors'. Looking at this trend, writers who had ambitions to direct started testing their luck and writers who thought they were being abused by directors by not giving them credit also tried their luck to become directors.
Hence, we have more number of Writer-directors than any other industry. Trivikram Srinivas, Sukumar, Koratala Siva can be shown as prominent examples for writers who became directors with big ambitions.
People who started their careers as writers like Paruchuri Brothers, Diwakar Babu, Omkar, LB Sriram, MVS Harnath Rao, MS Narayana, Tanikella Bharani, Satyamurthy, Satyanand, Yandamuri Veerendranath, Sanjeev, Ganesh Patro became directors and actors due to the change in trend by the mid-1990's.
Except for Paruchuri Brothers, Tanikella Bharani none of the other writers had ambitions to become actors or directors from the first day. They all had good theatre/stage experience but they did acting jobs as well as the pay used to be very less for writers. MS Narayana, MVS Harnath Rao, LB Sriram, Omkar gave up on writing after becoming popular as actors.
Yandamuri Veerendranath after turning into director and encountering a flop, decided to shift his focus to career oriented books writing. A very senior writer like Gollapudi Maruthi Rao also turned into an actor after writing 100 films as acting kept him handsomely paid and more busy.
Ganesh Patro, Diwakar Babu, Satyanand, Satyamurthy stayed as writers for most of their career and could demand a respectable amount as their films used to work at the box office. Jandhyala, Paruchuri Brothers acquired star status as writers after Pingali Nagendra Rao, Senior Samudrala, Junior Samudrala, Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry, Acharya Athreya, Arudra. Telugu producers used to pay them handsomely and wait for the scripts written by them.
Scenario changed by mid-90's and even a very sincere and successful writer like Posani Krishna Murali had to turn into a director and then an actor, later. Trivikram Srinivas is the only exception in modern times to be considered as the star writer.
He could fill in a theatre just on his name as a writer and that helped him become a director too. His films like Swayamvaram, Nuvve Kavali, Nuvvu Naaku Nacchav, Manmadhudu, Malliswari made him an important part of a blockbuster combination with director K. Vijaya Bhaskar. He could demand Rs. 1 crore as remuneration even as a writer in early 2000's.
Still, the situation for writers did not improve. Directors and writers either did not co-ordinate properly or credit sharing, revenue sharing became a huge ego issue. Hence, writer-director trend picked up.
Now, the trend seems to be dying down slowly with the emergence of new generation and different creative outlets. Producers are happy to pay writers for screenplay credits and give director the job of directing only and pay handsomely for that too.
Writers like Burra Sai Madhav, Prasanna Kumar, Lakshmi Bhupal, Vakkantham Vamsi are drawing close to 80 lakhs per project minimum for their creative inputs. Vakkantham Vamsi could demand Rs. 2 -3 crores at the height of his popularity.
Lakshmi Bhupal, Prasanna Kumar are getting close to 75 lakhs per project and they are working on Godfather, Ravi Teja's Dhamaka, respectively. Burra Sai Madhav is said to be getting upto one crore. He is writing RRR, Gopichand Malineni next, Ram Charan - Shankar film, Krish's Hari Hara Veera Mallu to name a few. Ravi Teja is endorsing Pushpa writer Srikanth Vissa and the young writer could join these big stars soon in terms of remuneration.
If you would like to become a writer, understand that it is tough to gain confidence of producers, directors but once you do, you can demand what you wish for, within the budgets and market value permutations & combinations.