Ashok Dubey and Rajesh Sapte

In July, art director Rajesh Sapte died by suicide, after accusing Rakesh Maurya — auditor of Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) — of extortion and harassment. His death brought the cine unions’ hafta culture to the fore, and put the FWICE under the scanner. In the months since, FWICE chief Ashok Dubey was arrested in another extortion case, along with Gangeshwarlal Shrivastav, senior leader of the Film Studios Setting and Allied Mazdoor Union (FSSAMU), Maurya and Rajesh Anubhave. In the latest development, Dubey — who procured anticipatory bail in September — is expected to resume work as the FWICE general secretary today.

Confirming the news, Birendra Nath Tiwari, president, FWICE, states, “Ashok has been granted bail. He was embroiled in a matter that he had almost no role in. Sapte hadn’t accused him. At the time of Sapte’s death, Ashok was in Benares.”

Tiwari dismisses the rumours of FWICE being restructured from the ground-up. “The only person who has been let go of is Rakesh Maurya, given the charges on him. Dubey has taken the matter to the Bombay High Court. We are often told that producers will form a separate body for the workers. It’s unimaginable how producers, who hire the workers, will form a body to safeguard them. If we fight for their rights, for better hours and better pay, how does that make us wrong?”

Many in the industry are said to be skeptical of the FWICE getting back in action, believing that the cine association used to aid the extortion culture. Tiwari retorts, “We are planning a press conference soon. We have records that producers owe almost Rs. 440 crore to workers. [This should] give people a sense of who is duping whom.”