Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; January 21, 2015)

Many a shoot schedule went for a toss with nearly 500 vanity van drivers and cleaners having gone on an indefinite strike yesterday, demanding hike in wages. The ceasework was launched by the Shiv Sena-promoted film workers’ union, Chitrapat Sena.

Akshay Bardapurkar, general secretary of the Sena, says, “We had a meeting with the all the producer associations in November last year and they had asked for a month’s time to look into our demand. But now that they not replied to notices repeatedly sent by us, we have decided to cease work.”

Per shift, a vanity van driver gets Rs 700 while a cleaner gets Rs 300 and they are now demanding that the wage be revised to Rs 1000 and Rs 500, respectively. They are also insisting on a one-and-a-half shift payment if they have to travel outside city limits. The members have also complained that they don’t have enough work and a wage hike was last effected in 2011.

Kishan Deshmukh, a member of the Sena, says, “The last time, our wage was increased by just Rs 100. It is tough to survive on such meagre salaries.”

Rachana Dubey (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 26, 2014)

Film associations including Indian Motion Pictures' Producers Association (IMPPA) and Indian Film and Television Directors' Association (IFTDA) have approached Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to complain about the workers of Shiv Sena Chitrapat Sena. Their associations decided to approach the politician after a group of the Sena's film wing workers landed on the sets of director Sanjay Chhel's Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi on Monday and left only after collecting three cheques, amounting to Rs 6.5 lakh, from producers Bharat Patel and Anil Bohra.

They were accompanied by the film's line producer Parimal Sampat, a member of the Sena's film wing, who claimed that the producers owe him the amount. The group allegedly threatened to beat up the producers if the cheques bounced.

"It was appalling. If political bodies continue to use muscle power, it will dissuade us from working in Mumbai and Maharashtra in general. But we're sure Uddhavji will resolve the issue," says Ashoke Pandit of IFTDA.

TP Aggarwal of IMPPA added, "We don't want to go to the cops if matters can be solved internally."

"The workers stalled the shoot for over an hour while Parimal watched on. We had to succumb because we had to complete the shoot and had the location for only one shift. They forcibly clicked a picture with the producer holding the cheque and printed it in Saamna, Sena's mouthpiece, praising their bravado," says the film's director.

Bohra says the workers refused to see the contract which stated that Parimal was to be paid Rs 22.5 lakh and other receipts which clarified that Rs 20 lakh had already been paid. "He's done little work on the film which is nearing completion. I approached the producers' body to resolve the matter internally and am ready to pay the amount stipulated by them," says Bohra.

Akshay Bardapurkar, general secretary, Shiv Sena Chitrapat Sena, said, "Parimal had spent Rs 8.5 lakh, which he needed to recover from the producers. We got Rs 6.50 lakh of this Rs 8.5 lakh. We have not done any vasooli. There's no point in involving Uddhavji in this."

Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; April 23, 2014)

A day after Shiv Sena objected to the posters of the film, Mastram, being put up on BEST buses, BEST chairman, Arun Dudhwadkar, has asked the film’s producers to remove some objectionable lines from the posters.

Arun Dudhwadkar tells hitlist , “We have asked them to delete a Hindi line from the posters which goes something like this: ‘If you don’t know about Mastram, please ask your father and uncle about him’. We felt that these lines would corrupt children’s minds.” However, Dudhwadkar emphasises that they have not asked the makers to withdraw their posters.

It seems that Mastram’s advertising agency had booked around 100 BEST buses for promoting the film.
BEST is said to charge around Rs 10,000 per bus; this means that producer Sunil Bohra has already paid them Rs 10 lakh for his film’s promotion. And while Bohra says that he has already made the required changes, a source close to the agency says, “Taking heed of the objections that have been raised, we have now put up white stickers on these buses in order to block out these lines.” But Akshay Bardapurkar, general secretary, Shiv Sena Chitrapat Sena, insists that he wants the posters to be removed rather than censored.

He says, “We have requested the chairman to take strong action against the posters. But now it is BEST’s prerogative to take suitable action as per their rules and regulations.”

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

The cine wing of Shiv Sena has objected to posters of Sunil Bohra’s film, Mastram, being put up on BEST buses. Akshay Bardapurkar, general secretary of Shiv Sena Chitrapat Sena, tells hitlist , “It is one thing to offer an adult film star such as Sunny Leone a new lease of life in our film industry and another to use government machinery (read: BEST buses) to promote porn writing.”

He says that he has spoken to BEST chairman, Arun Dudhwadkar, about the same. “Recently, a student asked one of my friends, a school principal, about porn writing after seeing the film’s poster on a BEST bus. My friend then brought it to our notice. Now we have decided to take action against the medium that is being used to propagate porn. We also want to view the film before it is released, as we are quite upset about its alleged content as well.”

When contacted, producer Sunil Bohra said, “I don’t know about Shiv Sena’s objection. Indian Motion Pictures’ Producers Association, (IMPPA) has already cleared my film’s posters. In fact, when our agency informed us about an objection to the line, ‘The legend of porn writing is back’, in the film’s poster, we immediately deleted the same as we didn’t want to hurt anyone’s sentiments.”

Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; March 28, 2014)

The Association of Advertising Producers of India (ASAP), a body consisting of 58 top advertising producers, recently sought the help of Shiv Sena’s cine-wing in a bid to sort out work permits for — yes, you read it right — foreigners they have employed in their projects.

On Tuesday, some members of ASAP met with Akshay Bardapurkar, general secretary of the Shiv Sena Chitrapat Sena (SSCS), to seek their help in pushing the government to expedite the work permit process for foreign artistes and technicians working in their projects.

Speaking to hitlist, Cyrus Pagdiwala, general secretary, ASAP, says, “We met with the union as we seek its help in approaching the Maharashtra government to ensure faster issuance of work permits for foreign technicians and artistes. In the ad world, projects are finalised in a jiffy and often, we have to make a film within just 10 days. But getting a work permit for a foreigner takes at least 40 days. We are then forced to work without permits and then land in trouble for flouting the norms. Often, various unions extort money from us and this whole cycle needs to stop.”

Bardapurkar says that they wish to help the ad producers’ body. “But they cannot be naïve and say that they have no choice but to let foreigners work without permits. I asked them why they hire people illegally, and they were quick to pass the buck to the ad agencies. I also know that this problem has attracted the ire of trade unions, who then extort anything between Rs 2 to 5 lakh from the ad producers,” he says, adding that cops and other law agencies turn a blind eye to such things.

Pagdiwala feels that foreigners should get work permits on arrival. “We don’t mind the government issuing a four-day permit, like it is done in other countries. We have approached several institutions — including the Foreigner Regional Registration Offices (FRRO) — but nobody is paying any attention to us. We now want to meet Uddhav Thackeray and discuss our problems with him.” Bardapurkar, on the other hand, makes it a point to emphasise that Indian artistes continue to lose their jobs due to an increasing number of ‘foreigners working illegally in the country’. “We are concerned about Indian artistes losing their jobs. Also, some producers don’t even have basic details about the foreign nationals they hire; some of these foreigners are also into illicit activities such as prostitution and drug peddling. This can’t be allowed,” he says.

He further says, “We have found out that units of films such as Vashu Bhagnani’s Humshakals, Sajid Nadiadwala’s Kick, Atul Agnihotri’s O Teri and Shah Rukh Khan’s Happy New Year have illegally hired foreign artistes. These have been roped in to shoot many sequences at different locations, and their number ranges from 20 to 500 models.”