Shooting of Pratigya halted for a day

The shooting of Pratigya,newly launched on Star Plus, was brought to a halt after about 70 unit members decided to go on a strike on Monday. The reason cited by one of the aggrieved members is the non-payment of the dues for the extra time they worked. The group included members from lighting, spot boy,setting and dress department. Informs a member on the condition of anonymity, "We haven't been paid for the extra hours we had put in for the past one and a half month. We had been working hard for the show right from day one of the shoot which started in November. We stalled the shoot as the production house kept dilly-dallying over the payments. This has been going on for the past 45 days; they kept promising but nothing happened. We were getting our salaries on time but didn't get paid for the extra time. The daily wage workers suffered the most. "When we stalled the shoot on Monday, they gave us our cheques but only for half the actual amount. We refused to take the money and didn't resume the shoot. Finally they paid us the entire amount but terminated six to seven of us from service and the shoot resumed on Tuesday. We didn't want to resort to such a drastic measure but it pains you as you give your sweat and blood to a show and still not get acknowledged for that. I remember shooting from 9 am to 3 am in the following morning only to come back for the shoot at 7 am. We never complained as the money helps us run our kitchen and one can't ignore that." When contacted, producer Pearl Grey of Spellbound Creations who is the co-producer with Manmohan Shetty's Walkwater Media, said, "There was no strike but a few members tried to disrupt the shooting of the show. We called up their association to sort out the matter and it was clear that they were at fault and their demands were uncalled for. We had decided to replace the guys and their dues were cleared. But later it came to our notice that they were trying to instigate the other unit members against the production house which didn't go down well with us. According to the clause number 13 in our contract with them, the workers are to be paid per day and not per shift and they were trying to blackmail us on weak grounds." All's well that ends well.