Cine syndicate flexing muscles in Tollywood, alleges director

KOLKATA: Does the Bengali film industry have a ‘cine syndicate’? This question started doing the rounds after director Milan Bhowmik alleged that just as construction syndicates operate with impunity across the city, there is a cine

syndicate

that’s making life miserable for those who want to work independently in

Tollywood

. In May, shooting of his ‘Rishtey’ for which WB governor Keshari Nath Tripathi had penned the lyrics was stalled in Sikkim resulting in a loss of approximately Rs 16 lakh. Some technicians including the sound caretaker and recordist, who were on their way to Howrah station, were asked to alight from the bus at Lake Town.

When TOI got in touch with Federation of Cine Technicians & Workers of Eastern India (FCTWEI) president Swarup Biswas on Bhowmik’s allegations, he said: “I don’t want to comment on such dirty issues.” However, Bhowmik is in no mood to relent. He has already written to the governor on this issue. Said Bhowmik, “Our governor had come for the muharrat of this film too. Gajendra Chauhan was supposed to act in my film. Technicians affiliated to the FCTWEI were threatened that if they worked in my film they would be suspended from the cine federation and would have to pay a penalty. A cine syndicate raj is operating in Tollywood now. I have written a letter to the governor on my plight and am supposed to meet him soon.”

Bhowmik claimed he had even asked Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA) to intervene. “Unless you are in their good books, your shooting can be stalled at any moment. I am a victim too. The EIMPA knew about my problem but didn’t help me when I was in distress. There is no MoU that exists between EIMPA and FCTWEI about the number of technicians that need to be hired. Yet, FCTWEI is muscle-flexing. There was a meeting where FCTWEI has claimed that if the MoU isn’t signed again, they will not sort my problem,” Bhowmik said.

Krishna Daga, chairman of the producers’ section of EIMPA, said, “The FCTWEI had laid down such a condition about signing a MoU. But, under the Competition Commission of India (CCI), we can’t sign such a MoU. We have called a meeting on this on Tuesday. If FCTWEI doesn’t attend that meeting, we will be forced to call a press conference on this. However, I will not use the word ‘syndicate’ in connection with the industry problems.”

Meanwhile, producer Atanu Raychaudhuri recounted how he had faced the wrath of FCTWEI while shooting for ‘Posto’. “We had a shooting on a second Sunday. As a norm, the second Sunday is an off day for all technicians in Tollywood. But if one is going for an outdoor shooting that is a certain distance away from Kolkata, technicians are free to work on second Sundays. However, none of them agreed to work on that Sunday claiming that it is their day off,” Raychaudhuri said. The producer claims the EIMPA had done nothing to sort out the matter. “I had to pay approximately Rs 2 lakh as penalty to the cine guild for them to allow the technicians to work. In addition, I had to pay the daily wages to the technicians. If I was adhering to the norms, why did I have to give this amount? In order to earn this Rs 2 lakh, I need to do a theatrical business of Rs 5 lakh. The cancellation of the London shooting is another example of how some producers are being held at ransom by the Federation,” the ‘Posto’ producer said.

Shyamal Dutta, a member of the Joint Conciliation Committee that settles industry disputes, said the technicians’ problem isn’t limited only to the Dhanukas shoot cancellation in London. “There is an environment where some producers are complaining of being harassed. But I wouldn’t call this a cine syndicate,” Dutta said.

Producer Rana Sarkar insists that the ‘Posto’ producer is making a ‘baseless’ allegation. “I have other businesses and I know how construction syndicates operate. I have been a victim of that. Construction syndicates insist that raw material has to be purchased by them. But Federation says if we have to work with the technicians affiliated to them, we need to adhere to some rules. There is a difference. Tollywood’s Federation doesn’t go beyond its jurisdiction to do anything illegal. There is no cine syndicate operating in Tollywood,” Sarkar said.