India's Bollywood on strike

Film producers will meet to decide their response on Thursday

India's film and television world has stopped production after technicians and actors began a strike over pay and conditions.

Unions representing film employees in Mumbai say many members have not been paid for months and are threatening to strike indefinitely.

"Employees sometimes work for as long as 30 hours at a stretch. There have been serious health issues and even accidents. We have been writing to producers but it got us nowhere," said Dinesh Chaturvedi of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees.

He said that workers' patience had reached "saturation point" because wages had not been paid for months and contracts were not being honored.

Chaturvedi - whose federation of 22 unions represents 147,000 members - said that in some cases wages had been withheld for up to six months, leaving workers on the verge of starvation.

Sushma Shiromanee of the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association said employers were prepared to hold out for months if need be.

"There is no shooting at all today, but there is no panic here. The biggest problem is with the TV producers," she said.

"This is not only harming producers, but daily wage workers, too, who aren't earning anything because of it... They should have sat down with us to talk about this. We can wait for six months if necessary."

© AlaskaReport.com All Rights Reserved.