Striking Crews Halt Filming in India

The world’s largest film industry has been plunged into crisis by a production crew strike that has halted filming in India’s movie capital of Bombay since last Friday, officials said.

“There is no work going on. We are trying to work out a solution, but no shootings are going on,” Govind Swarup, the cultural secretary in charge of the industry for the Maharashtra state government, told Reuters Wednesday.

Bombay, capital of Maharashtra, every year produces up to 300 of India’s 800 films, the most made by any country in the world. The industry employs close to 90,000 people in Bombay.

Swarup said that the 40,000 strikers included technicians, musicians and set workers and that they were demanding wage hikes of 15% to 30%.

The Film Makers Combines, an organization of Bombay’s film producers, said that at a meeting between the two sides Monday, it offered to increase wages but not by as much as the workers are demanding.

An FMC official said the producers were offering a 15% increase for those earning up to $6.37 per eight-hour shift on a movie set but the workers had demanded a 30% hike.

The producers say film stars’ salaries are rising and box-office revenues are falling because movies are available as rental videos only a few days after release.

The strike reflected the resentment of film industry employees who earned a fraction of what film stars are paid.