Holiday Halt: No end in sight for Tollywood strike

 

The producers and employees are still disagreeing over a clause mandating the former to employ only those technicians who are members of the Federation. 

 

If the strike continues, it may affects two big films, Pawan Kalyan and Venky’s Gopala Gopala and NTR Jr’s Temper, both of which are slated to release on Sankranthi alongside Shankar’s I.

 

“Two weeks of shooting is pending and we will start shooting immediately after the strike is called off,” says producer Bandla Ganesh, of Temper. To top off his woes, he has already announced  January 9 as the date of release. 

 

But Federation staff are  not willing to make an exception for films that are “almost complete”. “When we are striking, there is no consideration to finish few films which are ‘close to completion’,” says Rajeswar Reddy, secretary of the Film Federation Employees. 

 

The other big film that might get stuck is Venkatesh and Pawan Kalyan’s Gopala Gopala. And just one song remains to be shot. Meanwhile, it’s sleepless nights too for Allu Arjun and director Trivikram, who have announced February 5 as their film’s release date.

 

“The producer is the first to suffer when anything happens in the industry. Twice earlier they had called for strikes and producers had to incur huge losses,” says Burugupalli Sivaramakrishna, president of Telugu Producers Council. When asked if talks were on to break the deadlock, he simply says, “At present no talks are going on.” 

 

And when asked about the Sankranthi releases getting stuck, he adds, “We hope that the employees will understand and come forward. Otherwise we can’t help them, the producer remains at the loosing end.”