Sony finally clears payment dues...

The long outstanding payment issue of Sony's ill-fated show Meet Milla De Rabba which will end on the 21st of this month may have been solved.

According to Federation-of-Western-India-Cine-Employees (FWICE) General Secretary Dinesh  Chaturvedi, "The channel has given them a big fat post dated cheque, which clears the old producer Ravi Kaushal's dues".

It's a well known fact that the latter had not paid his workers from day one of shoot and that the channel had replaced him with Manish Goswami some time back. According to our source, the new producer has also promised to clear the balance payments from his side as well. Once the cheque is cleared, the federation will give money to its various affiliate associations, which in turn will pay their respective members (spot boys, light men etc). The actors should get their long due payments from CINTA by the month end.

Actress Kunika Lal confirmed the same. "I thank the media for their support in the matter". However she could not understand why the channel was trying to shield the earlier producer.

The source went on that the channel had tried its level best to ask federation to compromise, as they only wanted to pay 70%, but the federation stuck to its guns. They told the channel that its members have no connection whatsoever with any court case that the channel may have filed against the producer. Certain senior actors cried that they needed the money badly as they had dissolved their fixed deposits to meet the crisis. Chaturvedi said that the channel finally caved after they threatened stoppage of work.

This payment will only clear the claimed dues of all federation members, but there are some workers who are not affiliated to the federation, hence a certain amount running in lakhs is still pending, informs another khabru.
 
The source did not seem much bothered with the show going off air. "It had to go as the ratings had dropped to 0.1 TRP. But the fact that Meet will go off air before the final payment is reimbursed is a worrying factor, as the artists will have no bargain chip left if things turn sour", concludes our source.

We contacted Sony for its views, but they were unavailable for comments.

Reporter and Author: Anil Merani