Image used for representational purposes
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Top actors are being paid ₹300 crore per movie, but technicians are not even paid ₹3,000 a day, the Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) complained before the Madras High Court on Monday (June 30, 2025), while opposing a civil suit filed against it by the Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC).
Appearing before Justice K. Kumaresh Babu, advocate G. Mohanakrishnan, representing FEFSI, said, members of TFPC were also trying to “snatch the livelihood” of technicians in Tamil Nadu by attempting to employ people from other States to complete ongoing projects.
On the other hand, advocate Krishna Ravindran, representing TFPC, stated that a majority of the members of the council were small-budget moviemakers and not corporate filmmakers who make big-budget movies. He said, TFPC was equally concerned about the technicians.
The counsel said, TFPC had been following the practice of entering into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) once in three years with FEFSI with respect to the fixation of wages for technicians and also other service conditions. The last MoU, signed in 2022, ended on March 9, 2025.
In the meantime, FEFSI suspected TFPC of having promoted a rival association of technicians named Tamil Nadu Thiraipada Thozhilalargal Sammelanam, and issued a communication to all its 23 affiliated associations on April 2, 2025, asking them not to cooperate with the members of TFPC.
Asserting that TFPC had nothing to do with the rival association of technicians, Mr. Ravindran said, ever since FEFSI issued the non-cooperation communication to its affiliated associations, the technicians were refusing to work for the ongoing film projects, thereby causing great monetary loss to the producers.
Minister to hold talks
He also said FEFSI had now begun to work with another body titled Tamil Film Active Producers Association (TFAPA), and that the issue had become so serious that Minister for Information and Publicity M.P. Saminathan had decided to intervene and hold talks between the parties to resolve the impasse.
After hearing both sides, Justice Babu made it clear that he could not compel the members of FEFSI to work with TFPC since the MoU had expired on March 9, 2025. At the same time, he warned that TFPC members could always initiate legal action against individual members of FEFSI for violation of work agreements.
Therefore, he suggested it would be in the interest of both parties to resolve their differences across the table. The judge asked Mr. Mohanakrishnan and Mr. Ravindran to submit by Wednesday (July 2) a couple of names of retired judges of the High Court who could be appointed as a mediator.
Published – June 30, 2025 03:20 pm IST
