Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; August 22, 2014)

The Film Studio Settings and Allied Mazdoor Union have issued a non-cooperation notice against production house Endemol. Gangeshwar Srivastav, the union’s general secretary, says, “Endemol is yet to make payments worth nearly Rs 50 lakh for various tasks done by our members over the last couple of years. In fact, a worker from our union, Ramesh Maurya, had died on the sets during the last season but a compensation of Rs 10 lakh — that is due to his family — has still not been made.”

Srivastav says that other payments for Bigg Boss Kannada and shows like Encounter have also not been cleared by the company. “After our members got to know that a lot of money has still not been cleared by Endemol, they decided to walk out of the sets. They will only start work after the payments have been cleared. So far a cheque of only Rs 18 lakh has been sent to us. The production house keeps calling us saying that they want to have a meeting with us but nothing has happened so far. They could’ve just cleared the payments instead.”

Deepak Dhar from Endemol was unavailable for comment.