Acclaimed American writer Chris Keyser was among the chief speakers at the Indian Screenwriters Conference, hosted by the Screenwriters Association of India (SWA) in Mumbai last week. He was the co-chair of the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) negotiating committee during the 2023 strike when over 11,000 Hollywood film and television writers walked off their jobs in May 2023 and brought showbiz to a grind until their demands for better wages, increased staffing on shows, and shorter exclusive contracts were met in September that year. At a time when Indian screenwriters are spotlighting poor remuneration and unfair contracts, Keyser emphasised that solidarity was the only way the community could address the challenges in the Indian entertainment industry.

“There are unique challenges in India. In the US, the primary advantage is that the law allows us to bargain collectively. If you are a professional writer in the United States, with some limited exceptions, you have to be a member of the Writers Guild, and a company that’s a signatory to the minimum basic agreement of the Writers Guild has to hire Guild writers. So, we have control of the workplace. It gives us a shot at establishing solidarity and negotiating the contract. That’s different from the way things are here, and that solidarity is crucial,” asserted Keyser, known for the Golden Globe-winning drama Party of Five (1994), and The Society (2019).