Kollywood hit by indefinite strike called by FEFSI

The Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI), which has about 25,000 members from 24 unions, has gone on an indefinite strike after the Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC) failed to meet their demands. The shooting and all other activities have come to a standstill from Friday, 1 September.

The umbrella organisation of 24 unions is upset with the producers' guild for attempting to hire non-members from the FEFSI for various positions like editors, cinematographers, make-up artistes, costume designers and other positions, The Hindu reports.

The Tamil Film Producers Council had come out with an advertisement inviting applications from the people with mass communication and film backgrounds for the said posts.

"This is an attempt to destroy the union. All film shootings will be cancelled from tomorrow until they agree to our demands," RK Selvamani, the daily quotes the president of FEFSI as saying on Thursday.

The FEFSI had gone on a strike in August with several demands, but it was called off following Rajinikanth's request.

It all started after some technicians belonging to different groups in FEFSI refused to be part of Billa Pandi shooting demanding a rise in their daily wages. The film's producer, Suresh, took the issue to TFPC which raised objection over the halting of the shooting.

FEFSI stated that the agreement between the producers and employees union expired on 31 July. "The members should be paid new wages and until then we will be on strike," RK Selvamani, FEFSI president, had told IANS.

Actor Vishal, who is the president of producers' council, was unwilling to bow down to workers' demands and said they would pay the wages fixed by the TFPC. He also claimed that they would hire non-FEFSI members.

Further, he demanded the technical union that they pay for the losses incurred due to the cancellation of Billa Pandi shooting after some its members refused to be part of it.