On Monday evening, 5th September an emergency press meet was called out at the Film Chamber in Chennai where all the major south film industry producers were attended. At the press meet, Kalyan, the President of SIFCC (South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce) has announced that ‘It has been unanimously decided that from September 7th, 2011 onwards, no new films will be commenced in all four southern languages’. He has also made it clear that the films which are already in production phase should continue till this October end.
This urgent press meet was called out to discuss the issue by Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) who were demanding 80 to 100 % hike in their wages, which the producers claim is economically unviable. Producers say, they can making it to 25 to 30 % hike in their wages, which the FEFSI are not happy with.
Elaborating further on the resolution passed at the meeting SIFCC secretary Anandha Suresh said, “We were on discussions with FEFSI for the last two months, but in vain. A MOU (Memorandum of understanding) has reached Karnataka with their Federation and accordingly they have increased the employee’s wages up to 10 to 28 per cent and this offer was also forwarded to FEFSI but they are not convinced. In view of the above we have decided not to launch any new film from September 7th and have also requested the current projects on floors to complete them by end of this October”.
According to FEFSI Secretary G Siva, they will be meeting again shortly to discuss about the issues.
