All the 22 crafts associated with the Federation of Western India Cine Employees will boycott Balaji Telefilms from today. The decision was taken after a meeting of the committee members of various departments including Cinematography, Allied Mazdoor Union, Sound Recording at the FWICE office on Sunday.
This is in reaction to the incident that happened on Friday evening, when Prem Singh Thakur, chairman of the vigilance department, and two other members of FWICE, were falsely implicated in a case of rioting by Balaji Telefilms at Killick Nixon studio near Powai.
A senior member from the FWICE says," Prem Singh Thakur is chairman of the vigilance department. He was simply doing his duty and the police picked him up under a false allegation of rioting as well as forcefully extracting money from the producers."
Adds the member, "We will not tolerate this at all. We are fighting for the benefit of the worker who lives on daily wages. From today, no member of the Federation will shoot for any Balaji show. This non-cooperation will continue till the case is withdrawn and workers get their payments as per the new wages."
A worker who is currently working for Balaji Telefilms says, "We get only Rs 350 per shift although, as per the new revised wages, we are supposed to get Rs 600. When Prem Singh Thakur came on the set, we told him about our problem."
So did Singh try to stir up trouble? Says the worker, "Not at all. In fact, he tried to save Vishal, the executive producer of Balaji, who would have been beaten up by the workers had he not intervened."
Thakur, who had previously notified Balaji Telefilms to pay workers of the Allied Mazdoor Union as per the new revised payments (implemented from January 10), was at the studio to do a check.
When contacted, Prem Singh Thakur says," I went on a round of the studios with my committee members to check whether the workers were paid according to the newly revised payments."
He adds, "We first went to Chandivali studio, where the shooting of Jai Mehta productions and BAG films were taking place. On checking with our members about the payment, we found out that the revised wages were not being implemented. So we asked them to step out and they did so."
"We also went to other studios like SJ, Vijay Mills and Safed Pool to check on the same issue and all the workers willingly stepped out at these places. However, no producer filed any police complaint," says Thakur.
However, after Thakur and his team left Killick Nixon where Balaji Telefims were shooting, he received a call on his cell phone asking if he had asked his members to resume shooting following orders of the executive producer of the Balaji show Vishal. Says Thakur, "I had not said anything of the sort. However, by the time I reached, the workers were very agitated and almost ready to hit Vishal for lying to them."
He adds, "I took care of the situation and asked Vishal to leave from the venue. After he left, I found that a complaint had been filed against us at the police station. The gates of the studio were shut and some of my workers were stuck inside the studio. Naturally, they were very angry and wanted to break the lock. I calmed them down from getting violent."
"While we were still talking, three wireless vans came and surrounded us. The cops, however, were quite civil and asked me before arresting whether I had any complaints to make against the producers," says Thakur.
Thakur did not lodge a complaint following which he, along with his companions, were taken to the Powai police station and kept there for almost eight hours. They were finally released on a cash bail of Rs 5000.
When contacted, Ekta Kapoor was non-committal. She says, "Speak to Umesh Ray or Ketan Gupta." Ketan Gupta who was present during the incident refused to comment, saying that he is not authorised to speak on the issue. He asked us to speak to Umesh Ray of Balaji Telefilms instead. Now that's a soap opera merry-go-round, no?
