Chennai: The Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) had threatened to go on a strike against the Producer of the show, Endemol Shine India, accusing that the company has failed to employ their members in various crafts of show production that resulted in less than 10% of their members being employed in the show and vast majority of the crew working on the show are from outstation.
FEFSI had put forward a demand to the makers of Bigg Boss regarding the inclusion of their members in the production. It is learnt that the association is now planning to conduct an indefinite protest, if the reality show producer doesn’t meet their demands.
Angamuthu Shanmugam, FEFSI general secretary, says, “We have given them time till Saturday. If they aren’t heeding to our demand, around 2,000 members will stage a grand protest at EVP Film City. We have intimated the same to Kamal Haasan and Chinnathirai Producer Sangam. As a member of FEFSI, we hope Kamal sir understands our reasonable demands. Unlike the last season of the show, where the producer was from Mumbai, this time, the makers, has obligation towards FEFSI as they are affiliated to it. So, we demand that 100% of the employees should be from FEFSI.”
According to FEFSI, 75% of the production crew are from Mumbai, which is against the terms and conditions of FEFSI. Last year, too, a similar scenario occurred, but after discussing with Kamal Haasan, 50% of the crew were sourced from FEFSI.
However, the sources from production house reveal that the lack of understanding on the uniqueness of the BiggBoss reality format by the FEFSI leaders as the reason for the confusion. Unlike other singing and dancing reality formats, BiggBoss is an automated format in which the show producers will not have any control.
The shows despite having 60 Cameras, none of them are manually operable, instead it is automated equipment mounted in various angles and operated by few experts in Control room. In other shows, each camera needs a Cameraperson with two assistants from FEFSI. In case of BiggBoss it just need couple of operators in panel room. Similarly, its doesn’t need large volume of light man or technicians, as everything is prefixed.
The leaders of the FEFSI, who are not involved in any work other than running the union for many years may not be aware if the technological advancement and forcing the production house to employ more number of people despite lack of any requirement, which is against the ruling of Competition Commission of India (CCI) and Court Order that prohibits forced labour.
