Bollywood workers went on indefinite strike
Around one hundred fifty thousand employees of the Indian film industry went on indefinite strike in demand of timely payment and regulated working hours. The strike entered its third day on September 3, 2008. Members of Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) and twenty two other unions have gone on indefinite strike. So far, the meetings held between the producers and the workers have not been so successful. Aside from timely payment and regulated working hours, workers are also unhappy with the fact that producers are hiring people who are not members of the unions.
Major movie studios like Yashraj, Mehboob, Filmistan, Film City, have remained shut. Television industry is suffering most from the strike. Reality TV Show producers are facing major problems because, all the Indian channels have some kind of reality shows and they are required to shoot on a regular basis. Aside from reality show, soap operas are also facing problems.
Interestingly, some of the big time Bollywood actors and actresses shown their support towards the strikers. Amitabh Bachchan in his blog said:
“We remain at home and get that rare moment of spending time with the family. We wait for the relevant associations to give us directions on the next course of action,”
Actress Shilpa Shetty, who is currently hosting Big Boss 2, the TV reality show broadcast by Colours entertainment channel, did not shoot for the latest episode showing her support to the strikers. A spokesperson of Colours said that the Channel can only sustain for one week with its bank of episodes.
Most surprisingly, superstar Shah Rukh Khan joined the strike. Shah Rukh Khan himself is the founder of production company Red Chilies Entertainment. It is one of the top production houses in Bollywood. Aside from regular movie production, the company has a state-of-art visual effects studio known as Red Chilies VFX.
This is the major strike Bollywood saw for the first time after the late 1960s. Indian movie industry, especially Bollywood, has increased in size and profit. Even Hollywood studios are trying to break into the Indian movie market. Film making business in Bollywood has taken a corporate like shape as more and more multiplexes are popping up around the country. In 2006, the estimated size of Bollywood was $1.8 billion. In this rapidly changing scenario, payments of top actors and actresses might have increased but people who work behind the camera and small time actors are not well paid. In addition, production houses are increasingly taking foreign workers. This situation has left the workers no option but to go on a strike.
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