Telly soap shooting resumes in Kolkata after six-day deadlock

Shooting for Bengali TV serials resumed this morning in the city, a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with the artistes and producers to end a deadlock over regularization of payment.

The impasse between the Artists' Forum and Welfare Association of Television Producers had stalled shoots for six days, forcing TV channels to air old episodes.

Banerjee, after convening a meeting of representatives from both sides, told reporters yesterday that a conciliation committee has been set up with state Youth Affairs Minister Aroop Biswas as the chairman and veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee as chief adviser to "look into the complaints".

She also assured the artistes and technicians that the newly formed committee will hold a meeting every month to ensure that they are not deprived of their basic rights.

Among those who were present at the meeting at the secretariat yesterday were actor Prosenjit Chatterjee, the working president of the Artists' Forum, Shrikant Mohta of Shree Venkatesh Films and Nispal Singh of Surinder Films.

Talking to PTI today, Arindam Ganguly, the general secretary of Artists' Forum, said all performers and technicians turned up at the studios for the shoot today as per "call time".

"The conciliation committee's first meeting will take place in two days' time and hopefully we will solve all pending issues, including demand for overtime payment, in an amicable manner."