Federation vs director’s guild row intensifies in Tollywood

KOLKATA: The ongoing feud between the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India (FCTWEI) and a section of Tollywood directors shows no signs of slowing down. Though tensions have been building for over a year, things escalated on Labour Day when the Federation held a meeting chaired by its president, Swarup Biswas.

The new Directors’ Guild was not invited. “We weren’t invited to the meeting, so we don’t know what was discussed. The matter is already in court, with a hearing scheduled for May 19. We are following the legal process,” said Subrata Sen, President of the new Directors’ Guild. The conflict took a legal turn after filmmaker Bidula Bhattacharya filed a petition in Calcutta HC accusing the Federation of interfering with work. Though she initially filed it independently, she was joined by filmmakers Sudeshna Roy, Subrata Sen and actor-directors Parambrata Chatterjee and Anirban Bhattacharya, among others.

Biswas, however, said the Federation won’t back down and they will fight to keep the Federation united and are planning a larger movement.

Meanwhile, on April 30, Guild members including Parambrata, Anirban, Sudeshna, Indranil Roychoudhury, Bidula and Kingshuk Dey had released a video statement accusing the Federation of constant non-cooperation.

On May 1, the Federation excluded the Directors’ Guild from its meeting. Later that night, the Guild was removed from the Federation’s social media platforms. Names like Subrata Sen and Sudeshna Roy were deleted, and the settings of the Federation’s WhatsApp group were changed so only the president could post. Some technicians reportedly decided not to work with certain directors at the meeting. “I don’t know why they didn’t remove our names earlier,” Sen said calmly.

This isn’t the first time the Federation and directors have clashed. Allegations of non-cooperation have often disrupted shoots and caused delays in Tollywood over the past one year. Recently, Roy raised concerns when technicians refused to work on her new film. In the past, directors namely Kaushik Ganguly, Joydeep Mukherjee and Srijit Roy have also expressed frustration over these repeated standoffs.