Mumbai: On Monday night, the members of Allied Mazdoor Union and a production manager of Balaji Telefilms got into a fight over labour timings. The tussle led to a huge aftermath and the union took an overnight decision to halt all shoots in Mumbai on Tuesday morning.
What triggered the fight allegedly was that Balaji continued to shoot with its workers for more than 12 hours, thereby flouting the rules laid by the Union. The incident came as a shock to a lot of producers as Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), the mother body, has banned the Mazdoor Union. However, according to industry insiders, the body continues to operate despite the ban, creating nuisance for the industry.
Dilip Pithva, general secretary of FWICE confirmed the incident and said, “ What they did was not right at all. We have workers telling us that they are getting their money on time and have no problems in working extra hours. So why are they complaining? We have sent an email to all the producers last week that they can take whatever action they want against them (Mazdoor Union) as they have been banned.”
Ashoke Pandit, president of the Indian Film and Television Directors' Association said, “They are an extortion threats on the sets and it has been happening for more than 18 months now. They hit people, they extort money and just create some or the other problems for the producer.”
As a result of the regular complaints against the Mazdoor Union, actor Mithun Chakraborthy had resigned as its head.
When contacted, Gangeshwar Shrivastav, General secretary of Allied Mazdoor Union defended the act and said, “All we are doing is working for the benefit of the workers. We have are demands and they need to be fulfilled.”
It was one of the worst affected days for television as more than 30-40 leading TV shows like Comedy Night with Kapil and Bade Achhe Lagte Hain to name a couple, didn’t start their shoot on Tuesday morning in fear that the shoot might be disrupted.
Among films, shooting for Sajid Nadiadwala’s ‘Kick’, took a back seat. He had booked most of the floors at Mehboob studios.
A TV producer, on condition of anonymity said, “All these things are not right. For a small producer, one day wasted means losing profit for the entire month. This should not be tolerated as the entire industry suffers. This is not the first time they have done this. Just that the incident wasn’t reported previously, or the producers gave in. But this time since the producers have taken a tough stand, it has snowballed into a big incident.”
But what does this mean for the serials? A producer said, “We will hire police security and start shooting at the earliest.”
