Members of the Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) carried out a partial strike on Thursday condemning the South India Cinematographers Association (SICA), which had filed a police complaint earlier this week against office bearers of FEFSI, including its president G. Siva, alleging misappropriation of funds.
“We had taken the issue to the Producers and Directors councils and invited SICA for talks to resolve the issue but owing to the lack of response from their side, we decided to call on our members to strike work on Thursday,” said K.R. Selvaraj, general secretary of FEFSI. He said that not all film shootings were disrupted and that they had cooperated with a few producers, who had specially requested for schedules to not be disrupted.
“While a bulk of post-production work was stalled, a few shoots went on as planned. We had already conveyed our decision to the producers’ and directors’ councils on Wednesday,” Mr. Selvaraj said.
He further said that in the presence of the producers’ council, they were hoping to carry on talks with SICA. “The allegations are baseless and any issue with SICA could have been sorted out. They escalated it and we were forced to call for a strike as a result,” the office-bearers said.
“We had taken the issue to the Producers and Directors councils and invited SICA for talks to resolve the issue but owing to the lack of response from their side, we decided to call on our members to strike work on Thursday,” said K.R. Selvaraj, general secretary of FEFSI. He said that not all film shootings were disrupted and that they had cooperated with a few producers, who had specially requested for schedules to not be disrupted.
“While a bulk of post-production work was stalled, a few shoots went on as planned. We had already conveyed our decision to the producers’ and directors’ councils on Wednesday,” Mr. Selvaraj said.
He further said that in the presence of the producers’ council, they were hoping to carry on talks with SICA. “The allegations are baseless and any issue with SICA could have been sorted out. They escalated it and we were forced to call for a strike as a result,” the office-bearers said.