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How Hindi Television Writers Are Surviving Current Industry Slump — But There's a Catch
As India’s streaming and film sectors wobble, budgets shrink and TRPs fall, television writers face a brutal choice between financial security and artistic freedom.
In an industry still reeling from the pandemic, stability has become a rare commodity. Across India’s film and streaming sectors, writers are facing project delays, shrinking budgets, and unpredictable work schedules. The Hollywood Reporter India has extensively reported on the bleak conditions of writers in the industry. Amid this volatility, Hindi television has become an unlikely sanctuary. Its relentless weekly grind keeps kitchens running and EMIs paid. Yet that very stability has become its burden.
“The current situation of TV writing — I wouldn’t call this the best phase we’ve ever had,” says Bandana Tiwari, the writer of Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, a show that now airs on JioHotstar, and has churned out a whopping 68 seasons since 2009. “I’m not calling it the worst either, because if you look at the other mediums, whether films or OTT, they’re actually at their lowest right now. In comparison, TV is in a better position,” she says.
Television’s resilience lies in its dependable rhythm. While films hinge on box-office weekends and OTT projects can take years to materialise, TV broadcasts unceasingly. “We write every day; we produce content seven days a week,” Tiwari explains. “It’s a 100-year-old habit. It’s cheaper, it’s relentless, and you don’t have to wait a year for the next season. It comes every day.” And for viewers, she likens it to something habitual. “TV is like a cigarette addiction: it’s cheaper, and you keep going back to it. OTT is like a new hobby, like drinking single malt,” she says.
Creative energy, however, is being smothered under pragmatic constraints. “We aren’t creating anything new,” Tiwari says. “The demand right now is to recreate old successful shows.” In response, Hindi TV increasingly turns to regional industries, remaking Bangla and Kannada hits because regional TV rarely cross linguistic lines. “Your majority TV audience is not the kind to read subtitles, not that there are any to begin with, but you’re supposed to watch TV from the kitchen, remember? The access is limited to the speaker of the language.”
Ironically, the lower-budget regional productions can yield greater freedom. “When you don’t have big money involved, you don’t get as much interference,” says Tiwari. But in mainstream channels, storytelling is often dictated by marketing studies. “Marketing and research teams give us their studies with all their jargon I barely understand and tell us: ‘Write this, because this will be successful…’ Writers are surviving because they need work and money.”
Financially, the situation is less generous than it once was. “For every ₹100 we used to earn, we now earn ₹60,” says Tiwari, noting a stark 40 per cent erosion in pay over five years.
Rating Against the Clock
Still, for some, television remains lucrative, thanks to volume. Aatish Kapadia, who has written and produced some of Hindi TV’s most enduring shows like Khichdi (2002) and Sarabhai Vs. Sarabhai (2004) frames it plainly: “Maybe the top 20 to 25 per cent of the writing fraternity, the regular TV writers, have made really good money…when you’re doing Monday-to-Saturday or Monday-to-Sunday programming, that’s 25 to 30 episodes a month. If you’re getting paid X amount per episode… that adds up to a good income.”
It Ads Up
Yet producers face pressure from reduced budgets. “People are being asked to make shows on budgets that are at least 33 per cent less than they were a year ago because advertising revenue is drying up,” says Kapadia. Advertisers are migrating to social media, influencers, and niche platforms. Where top-rated shows once commanded a TRP (television rating point) of four, they now draw two — meaning half the audience (one rating point roughly equals one crore viewers). Advertisers increasingly question the return on investment.
This is part of a broader shift: digital ad spending is rising sharply. In the fiscal year of 2025, digital platforms accounted for nearly 46 per cent of total advertising expenditure. The 2025 Pitch Madison Advertising report — which analyses how and where ad money was spent and predicts future spending — said that India will reach ₹1,37,100 crores, with digital pure-play platforms up 12 per cent to ₹72,800 crores, while traditional media, which includes TV, newspapers, magazines, radio as well as outdoor media such as billboards, grows a modest 3.4 per cent.
Television remains visible but finely squeezed. An Economic Times report published in July this year notes that India’s television broadcasting is under financial strain — both ad revenues and subscriber numbers are faltering. Revenue for major DTH and cable operators dropped by over 16 per cent, from ₹25,700 crores in FY2019 to ₹S21,500 crores in FY2024.
And as revenue thins, metrics become less forgiving. The Broadcast Audience Research Council, the industry body that measures and reports television ratings in India recently shifted from a four-week rolling average to weekly “unrolled” ratings. Simply put, since June, TRP numbers are now raw, weekly figures instead of a moving average calculated over a span of a few weeks. So, while it is instantly reflective of what audiences are watching that week, it has also dramatically intensified performance pressure for advertisers and content planners who now get more immediate insight, but less room for error.
A Call for Reforms
Divy Nidhi Sharma, who has written dialogues for movies such as Laapataa Ladies, OTT series such as Heeramandi, and TV series such as Anupamaa, warns against taking the numbers at face value. “The viewership is now split between cable television and OTT; people are watching the show on JioHotstar or SonyLIV, but those numbers are not accounted for in the TRPs.”
Sharma goes on to underscore the personal cost of the prevailing circumstances. “The cup was already full, and now it’s spilled,” he says. “We started with four days a week, then went to six, now seven. And now they want 40-minute episodes. I honestly worry about the mental health of the viewers watching seven days a week. They must be taking turns to keep up!” he says.
The constant demands of television only end up hurting the final product, Sharma believes. He compares it to trying to perform surgery in the middle of a marathon; TV’s relentless pace simply won’t allow for the focus that quality work requires. He admits this perspective may seem privileged, noting that for TV writers, the real struggle isn’t paying bills but protecting their mental health.
Still, Sharma, like Kapadia and Tiwari, affirms television’s unique role. “People give TV very little credit for being progressive. It’s the only space where a woman in her 40s can be a superstar — like Rupali Ganguly in Anupamaa. That doesn’t happen in films or streaming. We tell women’s stories from their point of view; no one else is even attempting that.” All writers have received messages from viewers inspired to pursue higher education or empowered to enact change at home. “From fashion sense to social sense — sab kuch TV deliver kar sakta hai (TV can deliver it all),” says Sharma.
For all the good that TV might be bringing to society and to the homes of writers, Sharma is advocating for modest reforms for the ones running the shows. “If we simply went back to working five days a week, it would make a world of difference,” he says. Kapadia agrees that staggering episodes, mandating realistic off-days, or tying pay to quality over quantity could breathe some humanity back into the system.
In today’s media economy, surviving is a kind of success. But if television continues at this drag, the fear is that it too will one day collapse under its own inertia.
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