The Telugu Film Federation employees called for a strike from Thursday after hitting a deadlock with producers.
Though they have no complaints about the new pay hike, they are insisting for a clause that producers should work only with employees registered with the federation.
“But we keep telling them that this clause is not legal and against the Constitution. We paid nearly Rs 12 lakhs to the government for a similar agreement made earlier.
So we are opposing this clause,” says Burugupalli Sivaramakrishna, chairman, AP Producers’ Council, explaining their stance.
On Wednesday the producers held a meeting and decided not to sign the agreement containing the controversial clause. “We passed a resolution at the meeting that the Federation is blackmailing us and we don’t want to sign the agreement with the clause in it.
Even if they go on strike for one month, we are firm on this particular issue. The Chamber is ready to pay interest to those film producers whose shootings have stalled because of the strike,” says a source.
Also, S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali will be exempted from the strike and the film will continue with its shooting. “This film is a matter of pride for Telugu cinema and we all decided not to disturb the shooting,” says Burugupalli.
