The deadlock in Film City, Mumbai has intensified further after yesterday’s developments.
We are into Day 5’s proceedings with regards to the FWICE strike and there seems to be a lot of activities happening in and around Film City.
As usual, we at IndianWikiMedia.com give you exclusive details…
The biggest development is that the protestors have now taken to the next gear possible with the support and aide they have received with the Mumbai Congress Party leader, Sanjay Nirupam, joining protest. (IndianWikiMedia.com released a video of the same yesterday).
The protestors, who till now voiced from Film City game having been denied permission entry, with help of Nirupam talked to the police officials and got go ahead to enter Film City and talk to workers (As per the court orders, the protestors are allowed to talk to workers during their breaks in the presence of police officials).
As per sources present in Film City, “Few people from the FWICE got inside Film City along with few police officials yesterday evening (19 August) at about 7 PM. They went to the Chidiya Ghar set to talk to workers and convince them to join the agitation.”
With this information in hand, we talked to B.N. Tiwari, President, FWICE early this morning and he confirmed the news saying, “Yes, four of us from the Federation went to the set of Chidiya Ghar yesterday evening. In front of the Producer, we called the workers and talked to them. As soon as we talked to them, they agreed to come with us. So in few minutes, all the workers walked out with us from the Chidiya Ghar sets. They will report outside Film City for strike henceforth. We will be going to all other sets today to talk to our workers.”
However, we at IndianWikiMedia.com talked to various sources in Film City and got to know that the shoot of Chidiya Ghar started as usual today morning at 7 am with full attendance of workers.
Later in the day, we buzzed Producer of Chidiya Ghar Ashwini Dheer (Garima Productions) to know of it and he sent his reply via text stating, “All rubbish, nobody walked off the set.”
We also spoke to a representative from the set who said, “Yes they did come on our set yesterday, but the fact is that we are shooting at full force today. All our workers are here.”
We again buzzed Tiwari with this counter information and he gave out more developments that happened as the day progressed stating, “We went to the sets of Udann and Naamkarann and got all their workers out of work. They are now with us. In the evening, we plan to go to the sets of Ek Aastha Aisee Bhi and Piyaa Albela and Swabhimaan. We are confident of getting all the workers from all sets with us in the next two to three days. We are confident of bringing TV shoots to a complete halt in the next few days.”
After talking to Tiwari, we buzzed the Producer of Udann and Naamkarann, Guroudev Bhalla to enquire whether his workers have joined the strike, and he gave us a firm reply via text stating, “The news is wrong, our teams on both sets are shooting normally. They did come, but our unit is with us and shoot is going on normally.”
Well!! Whatever is the case, Film City, Mumbai has indeed turned into a battleground with the FWICE staging ‘dharna’ and ‘hunger protests’.
With them trying to coax and convince the workers in various sets to join the strike, things indeed look bleak as of now. Though the Producers till now have claimed that all is well for them, the pressure thrown in by the FWICE along with the support from Nirupam, it seems the battle will intensify in days to come with no solution in sight.
It is to be seen what direction the blowing wind takes to now!! Also, another thing to be remembered here is that the Producers have got a clear verdict to opt for ‘free trade’ wherein they can bring in new workers to replace the ones who have opted to join the strike. And if such a situation arises, lot of workers will be on road to losing their work.
We at IndianWikiMedia.com will keep a watch over the proceedings at Film City.
