Commentary
Keep a rights register before you keep a release calendar
Kathayan Editorial · 18 June 2026 · 4 min read
Most publishing trouble in Indian independent media is paperwork that was never written down. A register is cheaper than a takedown.
For an independent production, the riskiest asset is rarely the film — it is the borrowed music bed, the archival clip, the photograph whose photographer was never credited. None of these are visible problems until a notice arrives.
Kathayan keeps an internal rights register: for every production, each script, music cue and footage element is listed with its owner, licence, territory, duration, promotional rights and expiry date. Titles with undocumented or expired entries are not published.
Alongside it, grievances and copyright notices are logged with reference numbers and turnaround targets, and summarised in a public monthly compliance report. None of this makes a publisher automatically compliant — it simply means the answers exist before the questions do.