Shooting of Bengali TV soaps was stalled for the third day in the city today due to a ceasework by the Atists Forum demanding regularisation of pay and talks between it and the Welfare Association of Television Producers failed.
Actor Prosenjit Chatterjee told reporters that the Artists' Forum did not wish to disrupt shooting schedules of TV soaps but the July 8 agreement between the body and the Television Producers' body should be respected and artists should be paid regularly.
While the agreement between producers and forum had stipulated that the artists should get their salaries within the 15th day of the next month, many producers did not honour it and did nor arrange the payment overdue to the artists, Chatterjee said.
He said in the given situation it was not possible to resume work unless the producers paid the overdue wages on time.
Chatterjee made it clear though he was only referring to a section of producers and not all, the ceasework was disrupting the overall shooting schedules.
Forum general secretary and actor Arindam Ganguly said the July 8 agreement had also specified that any artist, working for more than 10 hours should be paid on hourly basis after the expiry of the time. That too had not been honoured by a section of producers.
"If an artist has to slog for 14 hours on the shooting floor and is not paid his/her dues for three-four months - isn't that an issue which has to be addressed immediately ?" Chatterjee said.
He said the state government was aware of the situation. "Minister Aroop Biswas has been updated of the developments at the meeting and he is trying to arrive at a solution."