The feud between writer Kanika Dhillon and writer-director Navjot Gulati after his tweet over credit has stoked a debate around the missing uniformity while acknowledging talent in films. After Gulati tweeted about Dhillon getting a separate writer’s credit slate in the trailer of Haseen Dillruba, she slammed his “sexist” post, finding support from Taapsee Pannu, Aniruddha Guha and Bejoy Nambiar. But the conflict has opened a dialogue around credit system in films.

“I want to ask this gentleman who did he sleep with to get Jai Mummy Di (2020) credit?” questions Dhillon slamming him for making a remark on her marriage with Himanshu Sharma, who co-produced the film starring Pannu.

On Gulati’s claim that his post was misunderstood, she fumes, “The message is not interpreted as sexist — it is sexist!”

She continues, “After being slammed, he will come up with silly excuses. This is a classic sexist behaviour.”

Gulati is disturbed by the issue getting diverted. “My main intention is that if one person is credited, then everyone should be credited. Why don’t OTT platforms bother to give credit. If every writer starts getting credit after the row, I will openly apologize to Kanika Dhillon,” he asserts.

If that is “turned into anything related to gender” then he is not willing to take all the blame. “If I am making a joke, shouldn’t we as a society have a sense of humour. Kanika has turned it into a war,” he says.

“The writers should get credit. But if the writer’s credibility is not high, then I don’t know if the producer will give them top billing,” says film-maker Vivek Agnihotri.

To this, director Nambiar adds, “We don’t have a uniform system. The move will push platforms to recognise the need to do that”. Filmmaker Jai Mehta adds that giving credit is important as it validates writers’ hard work, giving them “recognition, money and popularity”.