Wages due for months: TV serial actors, technicians threaten

An organisation of actors and technicians of West Bengal on Saturday threatened to launch an agitation, if the due wages of around 180 of its members, who are working in four Bengali TV serials, are not paid immediately.

Their wages are due for several months and the cumulative amount has become Rs 1.33 crore, West Bengal Motion Picture Artists Forum, the apex body of television and film artists and technicians in the state, said.

Holding a joint press conference here, the Fourm's Working President Prosenjit Chatterjee and General Secretary Arindam Ganguly said even after the four Bengali serials, themed on mythology, were handed over from one producer to another, the wages due to the artistes and technicians remained unpaid.

After taking over the four TV serials, the new producer assured them that their wages remained safe with the channel, but they did not get it.

"It very painful to the technicians and artistes, particularly those who are not so popular but contribute equally to the serials. If the issue is not resolved soon, we will resort to agitation," Chatterjee and Ganguly said.

The previous producer of the four TV serials also did not deposit Rs 20-25 lakh deducted as TDS from the salary of the technicians to the government, the two office bearers of the Forum claimed.

In 2018 also there was a stalemate for non-payment of wages of TV serial artistes and it was resolved following intervention of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Chatterjee said they were also thinking about taking up the issue with the state government, if it was not resolved soon.

The producer of the four TV serials could not be contacted.