Amid COVID pandemic, Tamil film fraternity may face upto 50% salary cut

As the shooting of films was stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic,  Members of Tamil Film Producers’ Council (TFPC) on Wednesday has decided to slash salaries of actors and technicians in the Tamil film industry by 50%.  Since March 2020, the entertainment industry has been in a lull, with many movie releases and shoots getting postponed and cancelled. Earlier, shooting for films, teleserials, advertisements, OTT platforms was stopped in view of the coronavirus pandemic, However, earlier in June, the green signal was given to resume shoots of the films, web series and serials.

In the meeting, Producers stated that they are incurring huge losses every month as they have to pay interests as many high budget films are put on hold for months due to COVID-19. This decision will be discussed with other associations in a week.

It was also reported that since the Council does not have an elected representative at the moment, this decision was arrived at unanimously by the producers.

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Centre To Release SOPs To Speed-up Resumption Of Film Production

Earlier, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said that the Centre will issue Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to speed up the resumption of film production. Prakash Javadekar was addressing the 'FICCI Frames 2020', which is an international convention of the Indian film industry.

He further apprised about the introduction of incentives in all productions including TV serial, film making, co-production, animation, gaming by the government.

"In view of the epidemic, the government will release the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for film shooting in India, to speed up the resumption of film production which has stalled due to COVID-19," he said.

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