Strike ends, shooting for serials resumes

Mumbai, Nov 24: Television technical workers resumed work Monday after their tiff with the producers` association over a wage hike demand stalled shooting over a fortnight ago.Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) general secretary Dinesh Chaturvedi said here the problem between workers and the core committee of the television programme producers was now "sorted out".

He told reporters that the workers have started shooting fresh episodes for television programmes, which were suspended for more than a fortnight. The workers` federation and the producers` association were in a logjam after some associations of technicians expressed their unhappiness over the revised wages mentioned in the November 19 agreement signed between FWICE and the producers` core committee. Chaturvedi, however, refused to elaborate whether the producers finally agreed to meet all demands of the technicians, who had asked for further hike in their wages. He also refused to say whether another agreement between FWICE and core committee had been signed, paving the way for the shooting to resume. "All I can say now is that the problems have been sorted out," he said. Ratan Jain, president of Association of Motion Picture and Television Programme Producers (AMPTPP), too said that the Nov 19 agreement would stay. "Four of FWICE`s affiliates were unhappy about their wages fixed in the agreement. We have told them that their complaints would be looked into, but they must first report for the shootings. Finally, we have made them realise the financial loss that the stand-off has caused to producers and the broadcasters," Jain said. While the shooting for serials commissioned by Zee and STAR Plus started Monday on a few locations in Mumbai, a senior executive from Sony Entertainment said that shooting for the company`s suspended episodes would start Tuesday. The shootings were due to start Nov 20, but got cancelled as associations of sound engineers, costume designers and make-up artistes took objection to the Nov 19 agreement, demanding further hike in their revised wages. If nothing untoward happens again, the viewers, who have been deprived of their quota of entertainment since November 7, can expect the telecast of their favourite serials to resume latest by Friday. IANS