Producers want actor Mithun Chakraborty to resolve the workers' issue

Mithun Chakraborty needs to wake up and smell the coffee,` said Vikas Mohan, senior vice-president, Indian Film and Television Producers Council at a press conference called by all producers' bodies on Thursday.

These producers' bodies had gathered in order to condemn the workers' strike. Given that Mithun Chakraborty is the chairperson of Film Studio Settings and Allied Mazdoor Union, producers demanded that he take strict action against erring members of the workers' organisation. From left: Ashish Rego, Dilip Pithwa, Kamlesh Pandey, Dharmesh Tiwari, Sangram Sirke, Abhay Sinha and Ashok Pandit at the press meet.

Ashoke Pandit, who heads the Indian Motion Pictures Producers' Association, said, `So many of our members have gone and met Mithun Chakraborty in order to complain about association chairman Gangeshwar Srivastav's extortionist behaviour but he does not seem to listen to us. We want Mithun to replace Srivastav with some one else.`

TV producers too pointed out how they were incurring huge losses due to this strike. Producer NR Paschicia said, `Even if one day of shoot is lost, it makes a big difference to us as we have strict deadlines that need to be followed.` Producer JD Majithia added that TV producers suffer the most and that such workers' problems were only adding to their woes.


On the other hand, Dharmesh Tiwari, president, Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), reiterated that shoots should not extend beyond 12 hours. `We need to set up an enquiry into Monday's incident where workers were allegedly assaulted by a production team. We should do so by calling both the parties but stopping shoots is no solution. I also request producers to work with the union and not with other political parties that are trying to make inroads into the film industry.`

Writer Kamlesh Pandey, general secretary, FWICE, says that their organisation has debarred Gangeshwar Srivastav for 15 years. `We issued several warnings to him for forcibly extorting money from producers. In fact, when co-member, Prem Singh Thakur, asked to look at the book of accounts, Srivastav had him ousted from the body. We want this racket to stop or else producers will be forced to declare free trade where they will work with people outside the union.`