Telugu cineworkers warn of film shoot halt over wage hike dispute

Telugu cineworkers have threatened to halt film shoots over wage disputes, rejecting producers’ partial hike proposals. The Federation demands equal pay hikes for all 10,000 workers, while actor Chiranjeevi distances himself from the strike. Talks with the Film Chamber continue.

Hyderabad: Telugu cineworkers intensified their protest demanding a wage hike, while the Telugu Film Industry Employees Federation threatened to halt film shoots from Monday.

Tension prevailed at the office of Federation office on Sunday as a large number of workers gathered there, raising slogans in support of their demand. Workers belonging to all 24 unions participated in the protest.

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Leaders of the Federation, which represents all the unions, threatened to completely halt the film shoots if the talks with the producers failed to yield any positive results. They said that for the film shoot schedules already announced, they will give a couple of days.

Federation president Anil Vallabhaneni said they would also talk to the producers whose schedules were already announced and would stop the film shoot.

The Federation rejected the proposal of producers for a gradual hike in wages. The producers offered hikes to workers of only 13 unions out of 24. The Federation leaders termed this as an attempt to break their unity.

The Federation is willing to reconsider the original demand of a 30 per cent wage hike. The leaders, however, made it clear that a wage hike for some unions while leaving out others was unacceptable to them.

According to Federation leaders, the producers proposed hikes only for workers earning Rs 1,500 per day, excluding those at the Rs 2,500 level. They demanded that all 10,000 daily wage workers should be treated equally, instead of creating divisions among them.
On producer T.G. Vishwa Prasad sending court notices, the Federation leaders said they were holding talks with the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce and not individual producers.

The producer sent notices to the Federation’s president, general secretary and treasurer over a Rs 1.5 crore loss he claimed to have incurred due to the strike. Anil Vallabhneni said that as long as the matter remains in the court, they will not attend the film shoots of Prasad.

The leaders said they would soon meet Telangana Cinematography Minister, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, to apprise him of their demands. The Producers’ Guild proposed a gradual hike formula. Under this proposal, workers earning less than Rs 2,000 per day would receive a 15 per cent increase in Year 1 and 5 per cent each in the second and third years. For those earning less than Rs 1,000 per day, the proposal was a 20 per cent increase in Year 1 and 5 per cent in the second and third year.

Meanwhile, top actor Chiranjeevi has denied reports that he is supporting the strike by Telugu Film Employees Federation.

“It has come to my attention that some individuals claiming to be the members of the Film Federation have gone to the media, falsely claiming that I have met them and given an assurance that their demands regarding a 30 per cent wage hike, etc., shall be met and that I will be starting shooting very soon. I wish to set the record straight that I have not met anyone from the federation. This is an industry issue and no individual including me can give any unilateral assurances to solve any problem one way or the other,” the megastar posted on ‘X’.

“The film chamber is the apex body of the Telugu Film Industry, and only the Film chamber as a collective will engage in discussions with all concerned and arrive at a just solution. Until such time, making such false claims is unacceptable. I condemn all such baseless and motivated claims to create confusion among all stakeholders,” he added.