Hundreds of workers in the Telugu film industry staged protests demanding a hike in their wages. After a month and a half of this fiasco, the Telugu film industry on September 15 announced that the wages of film workers will be revised. The wages were fixed as per the 2018 agreement. But now the amount received by film workers will get an increase of 30% when they are working for a big budget film. And for the small-budget films, the increase will be 15%. This new structure of wages for film workers will be in force from July 1, this year till June 30, 2025.
The revision in wages of film workers was announced by the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce in a press note, shared on Twitter. Have a look:
Telugu Film Industry PRESS NOTE#TFPC #TELUGUFILMPRODUCERSCOUNCIL #TFCC #TFI pic.twitter.com/7XBs9feYkp
— Telugu Film Producers Council (@tfpcin) September 15, 2022
But the decision of defining a big budget and small budget film has been given to Telugu Film Producers Council and Telugu Film Industry Employees Federation.
In the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, like every film industry, Telugu cinema also faced heavy losses. And now, when things were getting back on track, the protests by film workers threw the functioning once again, out of the window.
The Telugu film industry had suspended their shootings from August 1 only to hold consultations among themselves. Several other topics, along with the wages of film workers were pondered upon. The meeting, which was headed by producer Dil Raju, came in light of the protest staged by the film workers, demanding revision of their wages, on July 22. Around 20,000 workers refused to participate in the working of films until their wages were revised. Cinematography minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav had to intervene. He suggested that the industry should hold talks among themselves and draw a conclusion.
The constituted committee even reflected upon the issue of reducing the cost of film production.
