If you’re a writer or filmmaker who’s always thought in terms of feature films and wants to embark on your first series - where do you start? How do you start thinking in terms of episodes, cold opens, cliff-hangers and seasons?To break down the art of approaching the beast of a series I spoke to who else but the maximum guys of streaming - Raj and DK. The dynamic duo have churned out one blockbuster show after another. Two seasons of one of our finest shows, The Family Man, Farzi (which is reportedly one of Prime Video’s most watched shows ever). Not to mention Guns and Gulaabs for Netflix. And that’s not all. Due for release this year is Amazon’s Citadel Honey Bunny starring and also soon to be released is Another series they produced called Gulkanda Tales. I keep joking that Amazon should essentially build a shrine to them at this point. Raj and DK spoke to me about the art of structuring a series, the challenges of tackling a second season, what goes into nailing a great climax and the biggest turn offs they see in other Indian Shows.

It’s a pretty bleak time for the Indian streaming landscape, to put it lightly. I’ve spoken to writers who’ve said they’ve never seen the industry in such bad shape. You hear constant horror stories these days. Everything from platforms no longer commissioning shows, to shows in development or even about to start production which are either shelved or facing drastically reduced budgets. And these are big, well-known filmmakers and writers. So how bad is it and is there any hope in sight?To break it down, I spoke to one of the most significant storytelling voices we have. Sudip Sharma is the creator of Paatal Lok and Kohrra. He’s one of the few true blue showrunners we have - a writer who’s stepped up and become captain of the ship of his shows. Sudip spoke to me about the crippling uncertainty of the current streaming landscape for writers, the caliber of stories on streaming, his experiences of working with Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video, his advice for young writers trying to weather the current storm, and what advice what the future of long-form storytelling looks like in India.

What exactly does an effective writers' room look like, and have we adopted the concept well within the Indian streaming ecosystem? Or is it still a free-for-all with everyone just doing their own thing? To break it down I spoke to two of the most exciting screenwriters in town, both of whom bring new meaning to the term multihyphenate talent. Varun Grover was head writer in one of the first writers rooms for a major streamer with Sacred Games. Aside from creating and starring in Prime Video’s Pushpavalli, one of the finest shows we’ve made, Sumukhi Suresh recently founded MotorMouth - a company solely dedicated to writing and developing shows and movies. At MotorMouth, Sumukhi is currently juggling 8 separate writers rooms at once. In a hilarious, insightful chat, the two sparking screenwriters spoke to me about the do’s and don'ts of running a writers' room, bringing together the right group of personalities, why writers fighting can actually be a good thing, what the job of a head writer is, how young writers can deal with asshole bosses and toxic power structures, the insanity of writers being banned on sets and the surprising significance of Bengali food.