Kollywood strike: Employees’ guild, producers’ council disagree over wages, technicians

Actor Vishal, president of Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council (TFPC), said they won’t give in to the demand of revised wages for the members of Film Employees Federation of India (FEFSI), who are to go on strike from Tuesday.

“We are willing to work with anyone from FEFSI or even those who are not associated with the federation. We will not give in to their demands and we stand by what we said earlier. The Madras high court had restrained FEFSI from disrupting the shoot of any film,” Vishal said.

FEFSI and TFPC are at loggerheads after the former had an altercation with producer-actor RK Suresh on the sets of his Tamil film Billa Pandi.

Members of FEFSI who are employed as technicians in Billa Pandi demanded increase in their daily wages.

When Suresh escalated the matter to Vishal, the latter called off shooting and suggested that technicians outside FEFSI can be used for shooting.

FEFSI head RK Selvamani is spearheading the strike.

“TFPC should work with the members of FEFSI who are more than 25,000 in number and can’t use non-FEFSI members. The wage agreement for FEFSI members expired on July 31 and that’s why we requested revision in daily wages. The members should be paid new wages and until then we will be on strike,” said Selvamani.

The shoot of several Tamil films has come to a standstill.