Shreya Creations' ex-staffs cry foul..

The production house Shreya Creations which has made shows like Piya Ka Ghar, Ek Ladki Anjaani Si, Kaajal, Ranbir Rano, Jahan Pe Basera Ho and the currently airing Bhagyavidhaata on COLORS have apparently not paid some of their unit members for the past many months, owing to which many have moved out of the company for better prospects.

According to our source, "All this began when the pre-production work was going on for the COLORS' show Bhagyavidhaata, which was earlier titled Reet. Work on the show which started under the supervision of Mr. Sheel Kumar was handed over to one Ms. Tanya Sanjay, who joined the company as the new Producer. There are many starting from the then Supervising Producer of Shreya Creations, to the Executive Producer cum Scheduler, to the Unit Director, to the people who supplied equipments, who have been kept waiting for their dues to get cleared".

"Even after repeated reminders via telephone, SMSs, personal visits to their office, they did not receive a single penny for the efforts they had put in for the organization. Initially, Tanya Sanjay kept giving them various dates to collect the same to which they waited patiently. There were always new dates coming in, but no cheque. After a while she stopped attending to the concerned people whenever they came to meet her in the office and stopped taking their calls", adds our source.

It is also heard that the Supervising Producer, Mr. Aman Khanna who had been serving Shreya Creations from long, and was part of four of their successful shows, and was also part of the pre-production phase of Bhagyavidhaata, then titled Reet was forced to leave the organization, as they stopped paying him.  While parting, he was asked to collect the payment of his working tenure with them by 30th of Jan'09, but has not got a penny till date. "Shreya Creations anyways has a very bad reputation in the industry as far as payments are concerned to the extent that they don't even issue TDS certificates to people for years in spite of deducting it. When these people got ignored by Tanya Sanjay, they approached Mr. Sheel Kumar, who had told them that only Tanya could do anything about it", adds our source.

One of the affected unit members on terms of anonymity told us, "Ms. Tanya Sanjay acts in such an unprofessional manner that there have been instances where she has shut the main door of the office and has worked from the back door so that people think that the office is shut whereas the whole team including her sits inside and works. This was done to simply avoid people whose dues were to be cleared by the organization. There have also been instances where in Equipment Suppliers have come and abused her loudly in her office for hours because she hadn't paid them for their previous shows. Also, there have been numerous times when the shootings have got stopped for hours by the people she has to pay. She neither meets the people she has to pay nor gives any reason for not paying".

Recently, things apparently went out of control when an Executive Producer cum Scheduler who had worked on Bhagyavidhaata and was not paid for three months was asked to leave the company. Says our source, "The guy is still waiting for his payment, and in the meanwhile has filed a civil case against the production house for non- payment. In fact a second unit director of their previous serials had to file an FIR against the production house because the authorities had scared him of being bashed up by goons if he bothered them by asking for his dues. Finally he was made his payment only after the police intervened and the authorities were called in at the police station twice".

We called Mr. Aman Khanna, who has served as the Supervising Producer for Shreya Creations, and he confirmed the news and said, "Yes, it is true that for no reason, my payment has been withheld for the past 7 months. I have been part of five of their successful shows, and all was fine till Sheel Kumar was taking care of the proceedings. I have been trying hard to collect my dues for so many months. If I don't get my dues, I will be forced to file a case in the court".

When contacted, Sheel Kumar of Shreya Creations rubbished all this, and said, "This is all baseless. All are rumors, wonder who has been telling you all this…". When asked him whether he had been approached by the people who had not been paid, he stated, "I don't know. I will have to look into the issue".

We called the lady in question, Tanya Sanjay who categorically stated that, "I am just an employee in the organization, and do not own Shreya Creations. So it would be better if all the unpaid people approached the association to get their payments".

Now with the recession having gotten better, we just wonder what's keeping the production house from promptly paying their employees…

Reporter and Author: Srividya Rajesh