Aroop Biswas to hold meeting today to end Tollywood tussle

Kolkata: The stalemate in the shooting of television serials in Tollywood may be resolved, as the state Youth affairs minister Aroop Biswas will convene a high level meeting with the representatives of Artistes' Forum and Federation of Cine Technicians on Thursday.

It is assumed that the technicians may arrive at a negotiation with the producers. There had been a ceasework by the Artistes' Forum, with a demand to regularise pay.

The producers' association said it was ready for talks with no pre-condition, while the artistes body maintained that dialogue would start only after getting a formal letter from the other side.

The talks between the forum and the Welfare Association of Television Producers (WATP) had yielded no results. Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India had issued a Press release on Tuesday, saying that the artistes have agreed to join work the moment WATP agrees to implement the MoU signed between the producers and artistes.

The forum had also specified that any artiste working for more than 10 hours should be paid on an hourly basis, after the expiry of the scheduled time. But the decision had not been honoured by a section of producers. The minister will hold the meeting so that a solution can be arrived at.

It may be mentioned that the stand-off between the

Tollywood artistes and

producers has entered its fifth day on Thursday. Due to the resulting disruption of the shooting schedule, the

channels were forced to go for repeat telecast of the episodes aired earlier.