Various OTT platforms expect different stories to engage the audience, says Sidharth Jain from The Story Ink
The writing world looks forward to March every year because they know that the Blogchatter Writing Festival is going to bring in some innovative sessions. The sessions that every writer should watch with an open mind and functional tips.
After a successful writing career, the next big step is to find an appropriate OTT platform and dream of your book going for screen adaptation. On 5th March 2021, Team Blogchatter created an opportunity for all budding creators to listen to Sidharth Jain understanding all big and small queries regarding the book to screen adaptation.
Sidharth Jain is the founder of ‘The Story Ink’ India’s no.1 Book to Screen company, with over 100+ book to screen adaptation deals. He has worked as a producer in Hollywood and Bollywood and as the Creative Head of India’s leading OTT platform.
Team Blogchatter was impressed with Sidharth who had envisioned the growth of the video market long ago with the coming of more and more OTT players. Thus there was a need to divert the search towards storytellers for a good story and thus The Story Ink came into existence.
The delivery mechanism is important while choosing the story
The expectations are different from different entertainment platforms. The audience is not the same for movies in theatres or drama on the OTT platform or even watching Youtube videos. Here, Sidharth explains that more than the genre of the story, it is the format and delivery mechanism that matters. Understanding the behaviour of the audience towards a particular entertainment form decides what kind of story will work on a particular platform.
How much time does it take to come on screen?
Sidharth says that the process of converting a book into a screenplay takes anywhere between 2 – 5 years. Team Blogchatter understands the step by step process along with its community watching the live session. First of all, a producer likes the story and buys the story rights from the author and searches for a director/Screenplay writer who will then convert the story into episodic or movie format. This alone can take a year to get the desired script. Next comes the hunt for actors and funders. Finally, closing it with the distribution.
Does the author have a say in film making of his book?
Sidharth clarifies that the copyright of the book remains with the author or the publisher whoever owns it. But once the book has been finalised for screen adaptation then 99.9% of the authors have no say in the screenplay. Now the story is on a bigger platform and between various other people so its shelf life is decided by others now.
The book is written by one person the author but hundreds of people make it happen to the screen.
Self-publishers have a boon
Blogchatter community produces numerous self-publishing authors every year through Blogchatter EBook Carnival. Hence, it was an expected question for Sidharth to know the future of self-publishing authors in this space. Sidharth assured that if the story is compelling then it doesn’t matter how is it published; traditionally or self.
The outcome is to write a good story for the audience and be confident of selling it to the producers and screenwriters. Researching your audience and writing according to them helps you gain more experience with this platform.
Well, that was all from Sidharth Jain in this mind gripping conversation about Book to Screen adaptation.
You can watch the full interview here.
https://www.facebook.com/235894476750240/videos/187892913105339
