Credit: NBC News
The Writers Guild of America’s strike for fair pay and profits from Hollywood studios is being supported by the Screenwriters Association (SWA) of India.
In order to support US writers, the group has advised members to halt production on any US-based projects, such as films and web series. The official message from the Indian Writers Guild expressed their solidarity for their 11,500 WGA “sisters and brothers!”
The guild of the SWA has more than 57,000 members. They sent out an email on Thursday asking their members to support the WGA and outlining their justifications for going on strike. Zaman Habib, the general secretary of the SWA, wrote in an email, “We want all SWA members working on US shows and films to strengthen their protest by ceasing work on those, and to not accept any new writing work from the US businesses associated to AMPTP.
Anjum Rajabali, a screenwriter and member of the SWA Executive Committee, was quoted as saying in a Deadline article that members are continuing to work on the Indian series produced by Netflix, Disney, and Amazon. Additionally, he mentioned that the SWA is now creating a Minimum Basic Contract for members and starting discussions with producers about standard clauses.
However, because India does not have a single producer entity like the AMPTP, the association must speak with important producers one at a time. Additional foreign guilds, such as the Writers Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), Writers Guild of Canada (WGC), and Australia Writers Guild (AWG), have also expressed support for the WGA members who are on strike and requested their members not to write for any US programme.