14,000 Tollywood workers on strike

Hyderabad: About 14,000 workers of the Telugu film industry resorted to strike on Thursday over low wages and employment regulations. The strike is expected to severely affect many star-studded films that are on floors.

• Several films on the floors to be severely hit
• Workers fume as non-union members hired
• Wage hike not applied to low-budget films
• Talent matters, not union card: Producers

What has forced the workers to go on strike is the decision by the producers to hire the services of anyone to work in their films, even if they are not members of the Andhra Pradesh Film Industry Employees Federation.

The Federation said that this was unacceptable to them. “We pay money to get registered into the federation. How can the producers hire the services of those who are not even members of the federation? We strongly condemn this and we can't compromise, come what may," a member of the federation said.

But the producers say that it is the talent that should be sole criteria for giving work. T Prasanna, the secretary of Producers Council, said: “It's talent that matters at the end of the day. How does it matter where does it come from? They can't force us to choose workers from the federation. That's unfair." The Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce recently announced 32 per cent hike in wages, adding that this will not be applicable to low-budget films.

The agitating workers say that even if it is a low budget film, the amount of work involved is no less and in fact since the producers are in a hurry to wind up the schedules fast, they have put in more work. They also urged their national body -- All India Film Employees Confederation– not to allow shooting anywhere else in the country during the strike period.