Film technicians' stir hits Bengali film sector

Tollywood productions hit

The film industry in Tollygunj, now passing through a mini boom, suffered a jolt on account of cease work and agitation by employees and technicians.

According to sources, the demands raised by the technicians include regularisation of their services through payment of regular benefits, elevation of casually-employed staff into regular staff and a hike of almost 50 per cent in their charges.

While work had been stalled for two days, the confrontation escalated today when a large crowd of agitated technicians allegedly barged into some studios in the New Theatre film studio complex and disrupted work on certain projects.

The group was allegedly led by Ladli Mukherjee, a leader of the guild of television serial and video-film technicians.

Sources in this camp claimed that as the Bengali movie industry was passing through a lean phase for years, technicians had agreed to work at very low rates and sacrificed benefits paid even to casual unskilled labour.

Now that the industry was doing much better and studios were bustling with work, driven by demand from both film viewers and television channels, their terms should be revised and benefits regularised.

For example, the rate paid to technicians ranged from Rs 110 to Rs 180 per day. The rate for a job as highly skilled as a cameraman was Rs 4,800 a month, with those less skilled earning even lesser.

As per convention, these rates come up for revision every three years or so, but sources say that the present rates have been in effect for more than four years now. The Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India have been negotiating for a close to 50 per cent increase and a core committee of producers and technicians has been formed to look into the matter.

"As businessmen, producers should realise that we cannot make sacrifices even after the situation has improved", said Mukherjee.

He admitted that the higher cost could upset film budgets but said technicians were finding it difficult to make ends meet at such low rates.

He claimed that rates were fuzzy because influential producers working in combination with box office-lucky directors often pressurised technicians to work for even lower wages.

Work on a number of television serials like 'Banhishikha', 'Tamasharekha', and 'Dhat-teri' had been affected.

Prabhat Roy's 'Priyatama', with Jeet as lead actor, was the only film on which work has been disrupted.

Roy said that he stood to lose as much as Rs 60,000-Rs 70,000 a day, since this was a long schedule until June 10, with the release date fixed for August 4.

Also affected was an Oriya film by Hara Pattanayak that was on an outdoor shoot at the Nicco Park.