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Play it again, man!
All major Hindi TV channels will only run repeats of popular shows from today to protest against producers
| A still from Sujata |
Missed your favourite shows during Diwali. Well, here's a reason to rejoice? Many television channels are giving you a chance to catch up on the episodes you missed earlier. Meanwhile the situation between the producers of the serials and broadcasters isn?t so pleasant. Most popular Hindi general entertainment channels have taken a decision to re-run their serials and reality shows from November 9 2008.
On November 2 2008, entertainment channels had given an ultimatum to TV producers asking them to resolve all differences related to hiked wages of daily wage workers by November 9. They had said that not resolving the issues would force the channels to stop running their regular shows and switch to re-runs.
Says Keertan Adyanthaya, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Star Plus, ?I don?t know how long it will go like this. We are now experimenting with recaps of episodes, ?omnibus episodes? (that?s multiple episodes of a show put together) and will run repeats of some of our weekend shows on weekdays. We only hope that all the concerned people come to their senses and stop holding the TV industry to ransom. We cannot afford the hiked prices.?
On the other hand, producer Anand Sagar, the Creative Director of Sagar Arts says, ?How long can a channel run like this? The solution lies in discussing the issue in a meeting. I think only if all the three parties - producers, workers and broadcasters - sit together, can they solve the problem.
We also spoke to Dharmesh Tiwari, the President of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees. Tiwari says, ?Channels and producers are claiming that the market is in a bad condition and hence they are unable to afford the hiked wages. But let me tell you that our workers have not been paid since the last three years.
Mumbai Mirror had earlier reported how workers of the television industry and the producers are engaged in a battle of wages. The battle is only getting worse with the issue still not resolved. Meanwhile, the audience will just have to put up with the repeats till then.
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