Bharathiraja appeals for voluntary pay cuts

Director Bharathiraja, president of Active Film Producers Council, has asked actors and technicians who are earning more than Rs. 10 lakhs to take a 30 percent cut on their remuneration.

In a statement, he said that the request only pertained to films under production, which have been stuck over six months due to the pandemic.

“Tamil cinema is undergoing several challenging situations due to the impact of COVID- 19. Producers, who invested crores of rupees, are facing a difficult situation with regard to recovering their investment. With most of the rights like satellite, digital/OTT, overseas, dubbing and Tamil Nadu theatrical rights not being sought by buyers for most films, producers are unable to pay back even the interest to lenders. It is the responsibility of all actors and technicians to come forward and help the producers, whose films are under production and are stuck in cans due to this lockdown. Producers should reduce their investments by 40 to 50 percent now,” the statement said.

Citing the film industries in neighbouring States, he added, “In both Telugu and Malayalam film industries, all the artistes and technicians have come forward and accepted 30 to 50% reduction in their current salaries. In Tamil barring few who have come forward to reduce their salaries, I appeal to all other artistes, technicians who get a remuneration of Rs.10 Lakhs and above to step forward and accept a reduction of 30% in their salaries so that producers can reduce their overall cost, complete their films and release them without any financial difficulties.”