Technicians' stir affects shooting of Bengali serials

Shooting of at least 10 Bengali mega-serials remained suspended since last night due to a flash strike by technicians under the banner of the Federation of Cine & Workers of Eastern India on the issue of payment of overtime allowances.
A spokesman for the federation said, "Although there was a 2014 agreement stipulating that after 10 hours of shooting all technicians should be given a overtime allowance, most production houses didn't abide by it despite many serials enjoying high TRPs and we are being underpaid."
"We are ready to shoot for 10 hours daily, but anything beyond has to be compensated monetarily," he said.

The strike has put a stop to shooting of popular serials like 'Bhutu', 'Kiranmala, B'edini Molua', ''Potol kumar Ganwala", "Goenda Ginni" among 10 others since last night.
Sources in big production houses like SVF films and Surinder Films did not officially comment, but claimed the developments would not affect telecast of their serials immediately.
The producers will sit for a meeting this afternoon while the federation office-bearers will also meet tonight, Tollygunje film/serial industry sources said adding the situation would be clearer by late tonight-tomorrow morning.

The producers denied that any agreement with the technicians had been dishonoured.
"I am busy at a meeting," Nishpal Rane of Surinder Films said when contacted.

The federation spokesman said, "Five smaller production houses, including Saibal Mitra's Production, have not gone back on the promise and hence work for their serials has not been affected.