Impasse ends, TV serial shooting to resume tomorrow

The deadlock between artistes and producers of TV serials over regularisation of payment ended today, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee giving an assurance that a committee formed with representatives from both sides will "look into the issues".

Shooting for the mega soaps will resume from tomorrow, she said.

"A conciliation committee, with state Youth Affairs Minister Aroop Biswas as the chairman and veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee as chief adviser, has been constituted to look into the problems of both sides," she said.

The impasse had stalled shooting of serials for six days, forcing TV channels to repeat episodes.

Banerjee, who held a meeting this afternoon with representatives of Artists' Forum and Welfare Association of Television Producers, also asserted that payments would be doled out by 15th of every month.

Chatterjee and superstar Prasenjit Chatterjee were among others who represented the Artists' Forum at the meeting today.

"Full-fledged shootings will resume from tomorrow morning. Thankfully, the problem has not aggravated much and we are happy that everything has been resolved," the CM said.

Stressing that thousands of people earn their livelihood from the television and film industries, Banerjee said the conciliation committee would hold meetings every month with the artists and technicians.

"The committee will look into the complaints in this (TV) industry. They will see if the artists, technicians or anybody were being deprived of their rights," the chief minister said.

The Artists' Forum had been demanding salaries by 15th of every month and hourly payments if the shooting schedule exceeded 10 hours.

"We must not forget the employment opportunity in this industry. This is a very potential and popular industry. People watch entertainment channels more than the news channels...I'm also an avid viewer," she said.

Chatterjee, too, expressed satisfaction with the outcome of today's meeting at the secretariat building.

"We are shappy that the impasse has been resolved with the intervention of the chief minister. We thank her," he said.