Hyderabad:
The Telugu film industry is set to face a complete shutdown of shooting activities starting Monday after the Telugu Film Employees Federation announced a strike over a long-standing wage dispute with producers.
The decision, made during a meeting of the federation’s executive committee on Sunday, follows a failure to reach an agreement after several rounds of negotiations.
The federation, which represents 24 different categories of film workers, has demanded a 30 per cent hike in daily wages.
According to a former general secretary of the federation, daily wages have remained stagnant for three years, a situation that is impacting the livelihoods of over 10,000 workers.
The federation has demanded that wages be disbursed daily, rather than being held up in pending payments.
“Our workers will not report to duty from tomorrow,” a federation representative said, emphasising that they have exhausted all means of negotiation.
The federation has made it clear that shootings will only resume for production houses that provide a written commitment to implementing the new pay structure.
The Telugu Film Producers Council and the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce have reportedly been in discussions with the federation for months. Producers are said to have offered a 5 per cent increase, which the federation rejected as insufficient to counter the rising cost of living in Hyderabad.
The strike is expected to bring several big-budget films and web series currently in production to a standstill.
While producer C Kalyan has voiced opposition to what he calls “pressure tactics,” he also acknowledged that a month-long production halt could negatively impact daily wage workers. He called for a return to the negotiating table to find a resolution.
