The Telugu film industry is facing a complete shutdown, starting Monday, as the Telugu Film Employees Federation announced a strike due to the longstanding row over pending wage revisions. After the Federation and the Telugu Film Producers Council, along with the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce, failed to arrive on the same page despite multiple rounds of talks, the former announced an indefinite strike, starting Monday.
The decision was made on Sunday after a failed final attempt at talks and negotiations.
What is the Tollywood wage dispute row?
The Telugu Film Employees Federation has demanded a 30 per cent hike in the daily wages of Tollywood workers, a demand that had fallen on deaf ears for quite some time now.
The federation represents 24 different categories of film workers. Officials of the federation claimed that the daily wages have not been revised for the past three years, and it is thus impacting the livelihoods of over 10,000 workers associated with the industry.
“Our workers will not report to duty from tomorrow (August 4) as decided by our executive committee members. Despite holding multiple rounds of discussions with producers, they have shown reluctance to revise the wages,” Rajeswar Reddy, former General Secretary of the federation said on Sunday.
What are the federation’s demands?
Reddy explained that daily wagers in the Telugu film industry earn Rs 1,400 per day, and that amount needs to see a hike of 30 per cent, as it has not been revised for the past three years.
He also said that while top directors, editors, choreographers, cinematographers and stuntsmen negotiate their remuneration with the producers, it is the daily wagers who suffer the most. “Each film employs 150 to 200 such workers. Producers spend crores on top technicians but hesitate when it comes to marginal hikes for lower-tier workers,” Reddy stated.
The federation also demanded that the wages must be distributed to the workers on a daily basis, rather than holding it up in pending payments.
The Telugu Film Producers Council and the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce have reportedly offered a hike of 5 per cent against the demanded 30 per cent, the federation straigtaway rejected it. Several big-budget movies and shows are now in the lurch over the indefinite strike.
The federation has made it clear that work will resume only after their demands are met, and when production houses provide a written commitment to them about accepting their demands.
