Shoot of 'Choti Sardarni' Gets Stalled Over Non-Payment of Dues

The shooting has union members turn up on the sets of the show.

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Colors' recently launched show, Choti Sardarni maybe doing incredibly well on the rating charts for the past few weeks but it seems the situation on the sets of the show isn't as merry as you would expect it to be.

The workers union called Allied Mazdoor Union turned up on the sets yesterday where the shoot of the show had to be stalled for over three hours. The fight is between the workers and the producers over non-payment of dues and it is being said that the same has been going on for a while now.

According to a report in The Bombay Times, Pradeep Kumar, of the producer duo of him and Rajesh Ram Singh was quoted saying, “Members of the union, which represents workers in the art department, have been visiting the set every now and then, demanding payment of dues. But the truth is that we have made some payment. In fact, the last payment was made on Wednesday (August 11).”

He adds, “The show’s art director, Parul Bose, exceeded the budget allocated for set design, which was also cleared by us. In the first week of July, I held a meeting with labor union representatives and Parul, when she mentioned that a balance payment of two sets — `35 lakh (Filmcity) and `3.5 lakh (Mira Road) — was pending. We cleared it in three installments, but the labor union is now saying that `20 lakh is still pending. We just want them to share the relevant documents with us, but we haven’t received it yet. It’s against the law to halt a shoot. We had to call the cops on Thursday, and it’s only after their intervention that work could resume.”

On her side, Parul refuted the claim and said, The producers haven’t cleared my dues and still owe me around `45 lakh. Talking about exceeding the budget, the original budget was unrealistic. I haven’t been able to pay my vendors. Ever since we started working on the show, I have been sharing a weekly report on the workers’ fees with the production house. I called them incessantly for two months, but they didn’t budge.”

Gangeshwar Shrivatsav, general secretary, Film Studio and Allied Mazdoor Union, and FWICE treasurer adds, “We shared the ledger with the producers a month ago, but no action has been taken, yet. If they had an issue with the art director, they should have brought it to our notice back then. Yes, they released payment on two-three occasions, but it was lesser than what was promised. Our laborers still have to be paid `21 lakh. The production house is expected to make payments on a weekly basis, but the laborers, including the lightmen, haven’t been paid for four months. We are not in favor of stopping the shoot, but if the laborers decide to do so, we can’t be held responsible. If the dues aren’t cleared, we will approach the federation, involving cameramen and directors as well.”

Keep reading this space for further updates.

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Comments (1)

show was talking about flying to Europe n all.. but still they haven't paid for what they shoot here..

4 years ago

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