Community & Submission Guidelines

This website does not host comment threads, forums, public uploads or user-generated video. Any future community feature would be announced in advance and opened only with moderation and age-appropriate safeguards in place, consistent with the applicable due-diligence obligations under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Original story ideas, synopses, scripts, treatments and non-fiction pitches in Hindi or English, submitted through the Submit Your Story form. We welcome material related to Indian society, history, culture, knowledge and lived experience.

By submitting, you declare and warrant that:

• you are 18 years of age or older, or submitting with verifiable parental or guardian consent;
• the work is your own original work and you are the first owner of copyright in it within the meaning of Sections 13 and 17 of the Copyright Act, 1957, or you hold all rights necessary to submit it;
• the work is not plagiarised, and does not infringe any copyright, trademark, moral right, privacy, publicity or confidentiality right of any person;
• any real person depicted or referred to in the work has consented where consent is legally required;
• the work does not contain defamatory, obscene or unlawful material, material that sexualises or endangers a child, or material prohibited under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, or any other applicable law;
• you consent to Kathayan reading, internally circulating and evaluating the submission.

You agree to indemnify Vermaverse OPC Private Limited against any claim, loss or expense arising from a breach of these declarations.

A submission does not create any obligation on Kathayan to read within a fixed time, to respond, to select, to develop or to produce the work. A submission does not transfer, assign or license any copyright or other right in the work to Kathayan or to Vermaverse OPC Private Limited. Under Section 19 of the Copyright Act, 1957, an assignment of copyright is valid only when made in writing and signed by the assignor; no submission through this website constitutes such an assignment.

Rights are acquired only under a separate written agreement signed by both parties, setting out scope, territory, duration, revocation and consideration. Until such an agreement exists, you remain the sole owner of your work.

We may independently develop projects with similar themes, settings or subject matter. Ideas, themes, facts and historical events are not, in themselves, protected by copyright; only their original expression is.

We collect only the minimum personal details needed to read and reply to a submission, and process them in accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and our Privacy Policy. Submissions are stored securely, retained only as long as required for evaluation and record-keeping, and are not published or shared outside the evaluation process without your written consent. You may withdraw consent or request erasure of your personal data at any time by writing to contact@kathayan.in.

In every interaction with Kathayan — submissions, email, events or social channels — do not impersonate any person, misrepresent your identity or affiliation, send spam or malware, harass our team or other creators, or attempt to gain unauthorised access to our systems. We may decline to engage with anyone who breaches these expectations.

You may withdraw a submission at any time before a written agreement is signed. Complaints about a submission or its handling go to Dr. Rajshree Verma, Grievance Officer, under our Grievance Redressal Policy, at contact@kathayan.in. Complaints are acknowledged within 24 hours and resolved within 15 days.

These guidelines are governed by the laws of India, with exclusive jurisdiction of the courts at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.