Salman Khan resumes Mental, sans South fighters

The Lavasa shoot of Salman Khan starrer Mental, which had come to a grinding halt last month, will finally resume next week, all thanks to Salman.

Filming at the hill city had come to a standstill because of the impasse between action artistes from Mumbai and those from Chennai and Hyderabad over what the southern fighters perceived as inadequate representation and pay vis-a-vis their Bollywood counter parts. The disgruntled artistes had approached FEFSI (Film Employees' Federation of South India) but even that hadn't helped, and they had returned to Chennai, abandoning the action schedule mid-way.

While Salman and producer, brother Sohail, lost around 12 days of shooting and incurred losses to the tune of Rs 25 crore in the interim, Salman has now decided not to work with the southern fighters at all.

A friend of the actor told TOI: "Salman has decided to cancel their contracts. It is doubtful they will be given credits as they have hardly done any work on the film."

The gripe of the south-based fighters had been that there were only three of them for every seven from Mumbai, and that they were being paid 50 percent less than their Bollywood peers.

However, FWICE (Federation of Western India Cine Employees) President, Dharmesh Tiwari came out in support of Salman's decision saying:" As per the All India Film Employees Confederation (AIFEC), 70 per cent of the fighters have to be local (in this case from the Hindi film industry) and 30 per cent from the region of the fight master (the south in this case). The demand by the southern fighters for 50 per cent representation is unreasonable and just not acceptable. They have to adhere to the rules. I had a meeting with Sohail sometime ago, and I don't think Salman's decision is wrong."