I've been reading posts about money being sought for interviews for films and books and OTT shows, and as a entertainment journalist myself, have a couple of questions. This is not to trigger a debate, but encourage a conversation. @Apurvasrani @TheVikasKhanna

Over the past 2 decades, have come across innumerable journalist colleagues whose credentials and moral core is impeccable. Since, I've mostly worked in print and, of late, the online writing space, they belong to that zone too. We have usually struggled to "get" said interviews.

Either we are too small-town for the PR-driven Hindi entertainment space, or not big enough. And so, while we have the questions, while we have done our research, our questions usually remain within google docs, or our notebooks. This trend is fast catching up in the South too.

An easy way out of this quandary, as I see it, is to actively seek out folks who are genuinely interested in writing about a film or series or book, checking messages and DMs and creating an eco-system that does not depend on the money route.

When this category of interested writers is pushed aside and the ones seeking money are indulged (most do, some protest), it is grave injustice to an industry that needs to be written about with a little more dignity.

This might seem like yet another simplistic take, but it's the truth. Promote genuine writers, encourage them, and you'll be taking the oxygen out of those who seek money for writing. Two fruits with one stone: You get your interview, you work to abolish an unequal system.