KOCHI: The core meeting of the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) held here on Friday decided to stop all the ongoing projects if the distributors did not agree to hold talks. The meeting also decided to send notice to the office-bearers of the Producers’ Association inviting them for talks.
The Producers’ Association has called for a ‘lockout’ in the film industry from November 1. The producers called for a lockout citing that the South Indian Film Chamber has called for strike. The producers here are using the call by the South Indian Film Chamber as a cover for executing their own agenda, said B Unnikrishnan, general secretary, FEFKA. Continuous strikes are the real cause behind the degradation of the Malayalam film industry, he said. “All the issues can be sorted out though dialogue,’’ he said. ‘’If they don’t come forward for talks, we will have to take measures to force them to do so,’’ he said. They cite the demand by FEFKA for night bata as the reason for stalling the film industry from November 1. ‘’We are not ready to part with the night bata as it would be amount to the violation of labour laws,’’ he said.
The producers’ associations in Adhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have turned down the call for strike by the South Indian Chamber, he said.