Telly is full of tough taskmasters

It's not just Ekta Kapoor who's a terror on the sets, most production houses are tough taskmasters. They literally treat their actors and technicians like 'personal property'. At least Ekta pays them well, others don't even do that.

The unit members of Zee TV's Banoo Main Teri Dulhann are forced to eat only vegetarian food because the producer Shyam Bhattacharya is a vegetarian. He doesn't allow any non vegetarian food on the sets. Lead actors Sharad Malhotra and Divyanka Tripathi are very upset about the same and have told him so but he couldn't care less.

A unit member revealed, "It's very unfair to turn us all into vegetarians just because he is one. We spend 18 hours on the sets, 26 days a month and are away from our families. The least we can expect is to eat food that we like. Such rules are uncalled for. Eighty per cent of the cast and crew members are non vegetarians. We are all bored of eating the same old vegetarian food."

Even on their recent trip to Singapore they weren't allowed to eat non-veg food. Shyam explains his stance, "I want my unit and work space to be pure and so the veg food diktat. If anyone wants to eat non-veg they can do so once they leave the sets."

Another case of shabby treatment is that of actor Karan Grover. The Saarthi producer Asit Modi didn't pay him his dues. Grover even filed a complaint against Modi with Cine Artistes Association for non-payment of his fees. Grover had quit Saarthi after 500 episodes. "I reached a saturation point playing Arjun for three years so when I got a better role in Star Plus' Meri Aawaaz... I quit. I gave them ample time to end my character, which they did. But Modi's refusing to give me the money as per the raise I was promised in January 2007. now I have no choice but to file a complaint against him."

Modi is shocked. "I pay on time but when he quit I had lot of problems getting the show on track. I will not take his insinuations lightly but take him to court as he broke our contract," he says rather angrily.

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i checked in search section but it was not dere so i m posting it!