By Rina Chandran
MUMBAI (Reuters) - More than 100,000 Bollywood and television workers began an indefinite strike on Wednesday, protesting irregular pay and the hiring of non-union members, a move that could delay major releases for India's festival season.
Movie stars, including Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, as well as dancers, writers and technicians heeded a call for an indefinite "non-cooperation" protest in Mumbai, where Bollywood, home to India's prolific movie industry, is located.


"All shoots are off. The producers have not stuck to the terms of the agreement they signed with us one-and-a-half years back," said Dinesh Chaturvedi, general secretary of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees, the umbrella union for Bollywood employees.

"Payments have been delayed by three months, six months, a year. And producers are hiring non-members to save costs. We are not happy to call for this non-cooperation, but we are helpless."

This was the first time in the 50 years of the federation's existence that such a protest had been staged, Chaturvedi said, adding that he was hopeful of an early resolution.

More than 100,000 workers from 22 smaller associations representing everyone from actors to spot boys were involved, said Suprant Sen, secretary general of the Film Producers Guild.

"Talks are going on, but for now all studios are closed."

An official at top TV content producer Balaji Telefilms, which has 15 shows on air, said all shoots had been canceled for the day, while a security guard at Filmistan Studio said the two shoots scheduled for the day there had been canceled.

The Indian media and entertainment business is forecast to grow at the fastest pace in the Asia-Pacific region, with filmed entertainment expanding at an average rate of about 15 percent to nearly $4 billion by 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers has estimated.

The industry, which churns out about 1,000 films a year, more than a fifth of which are in the dominant Hindi language, has been making the transition to a more corporate structure in recent years, in terms of finance, production and distribution.

But work conditions and other standards, particularly for junior artistes and daily wage earners, are largely left in the hands of individual producers and broadcasters, said Anil Wanvari, founder of popular portal indiantelevision.com.

"There is some merit to saying wages need to be better, that standards need to be better," he said.

"There are wide discrepancies, and standards, especially in TV where broadcasters have a stranglehold, are still evolving."

ON TENTERHOOKS

There are no estimates for daily losses from the closure of studios that are mostly located in the north of the city.

Producers and broadcasters are hopeful of a quick resolution in the festival season, when advertising on air and movie ticket sales hit a peak.

"It's chaotic ... we've canceled four shoots for film and television shows," said Anurradha Prasad, spokeswoman for producer and broadcaster BAG Films.

"It will be a big problem if it continues for more than three or four days. Broadcasters don't have a bank of shows, so we will have to resort to repeating shows. We're on tenterhooks."

(Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Valerie Lee)
© Copyright 2008 Reuters.