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Playwright

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Playwrights write original scripts for live theatre — full-length plays, one-acts, experimental performance texts, and adaptations — that directors, actors, and designers realise on stage. In India the tradition runs from Sanskrit nataka through the social realism of Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad, and Mahesh Dattani to contemporary practitioners writing for NSD Repertory Company, Prithvi Theatre, Aadyam, and the growing NATsyam and Rage Productions circuits. Unlike screenplay writers, playwrights retain moral rights to their text under Indian copyright law and earn ongoing royalties per performance, making a produced play a long-tail asset: a play running 200 times over five years earns differently from a one-time film script assignment. The primary income streams are commissioning fees from theatre companies (₹50K–₹8L per script depending on producing organisation), per-performance royalties (typically 6–10% of box-office receipts), government fellowships from NSD and Sangeet Natak Akademi, and residencies at institutions like Ninasam and Adishakti. Most working Indian playwrights combine writing with teaching, directing, dramaturgy, or workshop facilitation to maintain financial stability.