Bollywood to go on indefinite strike from October 3

Come October 3 onwards, all workers of this film industry, including directors, actors, music directors, cinematographers, all other technicians, junior artistes, screenwriters and lyricists are going on an indefinite strike.
The reason for taking such a step is to once and for all decide on the unfair treatment of writers in the film industry.
According to Anjum Rajabali, the convenor of Film Minimum Basic Contract, “Writers’ contracts are totally one-sided in favour of producers, exploitative, and violate the Copyright Act.Writers’ contracts humiliate the writer! In too many contracts, even credit is not assured. Shockingly, the contracts of even some established writers say, ‘Final credit will be on the discretion of the producer’!” Sometimes, it also mentions that ‘This contract can be terminated by the producer at any time, without assigning any reason whatsoever’!
Apparently, some contracts even state that the writer will return the fees, if the producer is unhappy with the work! New writers, irrespective of their talent, are often less than Rs 1 lakh for the entire script. “Even successful writers are paid much less than the worth of their work. This, when film budgets are ballooning rapidly and star salaries have hit the sky! Yet, writers are the last in the priority list. But tall claims are always made about how writers are the true stars of the films!” says Kamlesh Pandey, general secretary of Film Writers Association (FWA) and president of Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE).
According to the amended Copyright Act, when a writer writes, s/he creates intellectual property of which s/he is the first owner. S/he then has the right to assign it to the producer to make a film, making him the second owner. The right to be called the author of that work is permanently his/hers. “While the producer is free to commercially exploit the script, when the film based on a writer’s script is shown on TV, on the Internet or on any platform outside of a cinema hall, writers are entitled to royalties (a percentage of such earnings). If the film is remade or adapted or dubbed or converted into a TV serial or book or commercially exploited in any way whatsoever, writers are entitled to royalties from such exploitation,” Pandey says.
This royalty is separate from the writing fee. However, writers state that none of these clauses are followed in the contracts! “Instead, they term the writing fee as ‘advance royalty’, or flatly write that the writer forgoes his/her right to receive royalty. This is blatantly illegal,” Rajabali says.
To rectify this situation, and regulate the writer-producer relationship, FWA insisted on a basic standard contract for film & TV writers and lyricists, which would have some essential protective clauses, and a schedule for minimum fees, production slab-wise. After intensive consultations with several IP lawyers and about 25 film screenwriters including Javed Akhtar, Vishal Bhardwaj, Jaideep Sahni, Sriram Raghavan, Rajat Aroraa, Shridhar Raghavan, Abbas Tyrewala, Amole Gupte, Saket Chaudhary and others, a Minimum Basic Contract (MBC) was formulated. “Our MBC was examined by senior Indian and international writers, other writers’ guilds, senior IP lawyers, and most importantly by producers themselves. In fact, three years ago, when FWA officially negotiated this MBC with the Film and TV Producers Guild, all the above clauses were mutually agreed to! They even wrote to us confirming this! And, yet, when the copyright act was amended, they summarily backtracked,” Pandey says.
The solution to the problem, the likes of Rajabali feel, is to go for collective bargaining. “The Writers Guild of America enforces their own Minimum Basic Agreement with the collective support of all its members. And, even they’ve had three strikes since the 40s before achieving their currently enviable position. The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE, the mother-body of all 23 unions) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Producers’ bodies to ensure a wage-increase and improved working conditions for workers. “But, this was mainly for the physical workers. This year, FWA and other talent-based unions, decided that our proposed standard contracts should be included in that collective MoU. The Producers’ representatives had agreed that the MoU would be signed by January 2015. But, that has not happened. After 14 months of suffering delaying tactics, FWICE was left with no choice but to declare a general strike. All the 23 unions, actors, directors, music directors, every single worker of the Film & TV industry, including FWA, are going on strike. All India Cine Employees Confederation is also supporting us!” Pandey adds.
If producers don’t try to resolve the issues, the strike will severely impact the industry. “The strike is not only applicable to Mumbai. The strike will impact our directors even if they are shooting outside the state!”
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