Tamil TV producers seek cap on number of dubbed Hindi serials

Industry says they could not compete and hundreds of people are losing jobs

The Film Employees’ Federation of South India, Tamil Nadu, today held a one-day strike urging the state government to place a cap on the telecast of dubbed serials by the local channels.

Stating that in the last three years almost half the television serials telecasted by local channels had been the dubbed versions of big budget Hindi language serials, the union representatives alleged their telecast was impacting livelihood of locals.

The unions noted Andhra Pradesh either had a complete or partial ban on dubbing serials or films.

The agitation by them comes against the backdrop of the death of a local television soap director Balaji Yadav, who according to them, had committed suicide as he could not repay his debt due to unemployment.

HR Selvaraj, president of dubbing artists union and Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI) told mediapersons, “We have approached all the six private television channels with a request to come out with a concrete plan to support Tamil language serials. We are also seeking chief minister to intervene in this matter.”

“We will wait for the reaction of the private channels over the next 10 days and will take the next course of action,” Selvaraj said.

He noted that while it takes Rs 60,000-2 lakh for producing a Tamil serial, the dubbed versions of Hindi serials made at Rs 50 lakh are cheaper to telecast.

Besides, Tamil producers cannot match or compete with Hindi serial makers in terms of scale and production qualities, Selvaraj said.