The screenwriters provide a film with its backbone, the Screenplay. The screenplay is the complete compiled script which tells the story of the film in different scenes. It is the base that determines the scope and prospects of any film and a primary factor that influences the decision of producers, directors and actors before they sign up for it. Suffice to say, scriptwriting and screenwriters are the backbone of movies and cinema, all in all. Indian Cinema has seen a gamut of dexterous screenwriters who have from its very inception carved out the story and screenplay of its myriad range of films, with virtuosity in creativity and ideation.

The former duo of eminent lyricist Javed Akhtar and film veteran Salim Khan, together who were known as Salim-Javed are regarded as the most successful scriptwriters of all-time and the first in Hindi films to achieve star status. They worked on the scripts of 26 films from 1971 to 1987, of which 21 were commercially and critically successful. They worked together in 22 Bollywood movies and 2 Telugu films. They made the writer"s role popular with their names appearing in the posters of the films, and in some films they shared up to 25% of the profit. The duo won 6 Filmfare Awards during their career together.

Renowned lyricist Gulzar has also written scripts and dialogues for Bollywood films like "Masoom" (1983), "Lekin…" (1990), "Maachis" (1996), "Hu Tu Tu" (1999) and "Mirzya" (2016). Ismat Chughtai was an eminent Indian writer in Urdu, who wrote the screenplay for "Arzoo" (1950). "Ziddi" (1948) and "Garm Hava" (1973) were based on stories by her and she co-wrote the dialogues for the award-winning film "Junoon" (1978). Kamal Amrohi was a Bollywood director and scriptwriter who compiled the story and dialogues of films "Jailor" (1938), "Pukar" (1939), "Mahal" (1949), "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960), "Pakeezah" (1972) and others. Rajinder Singh Bedi was another noted Urdu writer who composed the dialogues and story of films like "Devdas" (1955), "Musafir" (1957), "Mere Sanam" (1965) and "Abhimaan" (1973).

Honey Irani is a popular screenwriter who has written screenplay for contemporary films like "Darr" (1993), "Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai" (2000), "Koi… Mil Gaya" (2003), "Krrish" (2006) and "Krrish 3" (2013). Jaideep Sahni is another noted contemporary screenwriter who has written the screenplay of popular films like "Chak De! India" (2007), "Khosla Ka Ghosla" (2006), "Company" (2002), "Bunty Aur Babli" (2005), "Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year" (2009) and "Shuddh Desi Romance" (2013).

Many prominent directors of Indian Cinema also write the screenplay and dialogues of their own films. The illustrious list includes Vijay Bhatt, K. Balachander, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Ashutosh Gowariker, Anurag Kashyap, Farhan Akhtar, Vishal Bhardwaj, Zoya Akhtar and Vikas Bahl amongst others.