Tamil film producers put September 1 strike on hold after minister’s assurance

Tamil film producers have indefinitely postponed their planned September 1 strike following an assurance from Tamil Nadu Minister Rajmohan that the Chief Minister would be apprised of their concerns and tripartite talks would be facilitated after the ongoing Assembly session

Chennai: The Tamil Film Producers Council and the Tamil Film Active Producers Association on Friday jointly announced that they had decided to postpone the decision to go on strike from September 1 in the wake of an assurance given by Tamil Nadu Minister for Information and Publicity Rajmohan.

In a statement issued on Friday, the producer associations said that they had chosen to indefinitely postpone the strike call given in the wake of Tamil Nadu Minister for Information and Publicity Rajmohan’s assurance to them that the attention of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay would be drawn to their concerns and that tripartite talks under the guidance of the Chief Minister would be facilitated to find a permanent solution to the problem.

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The producers said that they had met Tamil Nadu Minister for Information and Publicity Rajmohan on August 26 and explained the problems plaguing the film industry to him. They said that they had also submitted their requests as a petition to the minister on the occasion.

Stating that after perusing their petition, the Minister had asked the Tamil Nadu Film Distributors Federation and the Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association to continue following the process that was in place for releasing films now, the producers pointed out that the minister had told them that the Tamil Nadu government would initiate steps to hold talks between the Tamil Nadu Film Distributors Federation, the Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association and the Tamil Film Producers associations after the ongoing Assembly session and find a solution to the problem.

For the unaware, the producers associations had on August 22 announced that no new Tamil films would be released from September 1. They had also said that all film shootings and post production work being carried out on films would come to a standstill from September 1.

The producers said the decision to stop the release of all new Tamil films from September 1 had been taken in response to the unilateral announcement made by the Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association and the Tamil Nadu Film Distributors Federation with regard to the release of new films on OTTs.

The distributors and the theatre owners associations had said that they would only be able to screen those films whose producers gave them an assurance that they would release their films on OTT platforms only eight weeks after their theatrical release.

In a joint statement on August 22, the producers had said, “The distributors federation and the theatre owners association, of their own accord and without holding consultations with others, have decided that they can permit the theatrical screenings of only those films, whose producers give letters stating that they will release their films on OTT platforms only after eight weeks after their films’ theatrical release.”

Pointing out that no such practice was in place in the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka or Kerala, the producers associations had said that this move, which was being deliberately introduced in Tamil Nadu alone, was one that needed to be condemned.