The shoot of a number of Bengali TV serials were stalled on Monday yet again following a dispute between the production house and artists regarding the payment dues. Actors of Bengali daily soaps, ‘
Debi Choudhurani
’, ‘
Rani Rashmoni
’, and ‘Manasa’ are reportedly yet to get their payments cleared by the production house handling the shows.
Last Friday, the shoot of these serials were stalled due to the same issue. The actors urged the ‘West Bengal Motion Pictures Artists’ Forum (WBMPAF)’ to intervene and resolve the issue. And the Forum requested the production house handling the shows to clear the due payments and the TDS by yesterday (August 26), to which the production house agreed, industry sources suggest.
With such promise from the production house, the shoot resumed and actors went to their respective sets on Monday morning. Things were almost smooth till noon. But in the evening the shoots of these five serials reportedly stopped following an instruction from the Forum when the production house failed to pay the dues, sources suggest.
An actor associated with one of these shows said, “We went to the shoot following the call time. The shoot was going on till evening. But suddenly, we were told that the production house didn’t keep the promise and failed to meet the deadline once again. This isn’t the first time we are facing this since long. A few crores of payment is pending. We had to stop the shoot.” The actor shared how
Artists' Forum
has extended support to the actors to get their dues back at an earliest.
Another actor who plays a meaty role in one of these shows said, “A huge amount of money is pending from the said production house. A strict step was really needed.”
While shows like, ‘Rani Rashmoni’ has episode banking, ‘Debi Choudhurani’ doesn’t have a reserve. If shoot doesn’t resume immediately a number of shows might go off-air soon.
A crew member of a leading daily soap said, “We have the episode banking that can help us to sustain till Friday. But we need to start shooting immediately otherwise, our show might go off-air from Saturday.”
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