The Bollywood workers? strike?people in the trade are saying that they have seen it coming for some time now, even if this didn?t find mention in published reports. Just as mobile access now cuts across class boundaries, even the most lowly of Bollywood workers are now hooked into the information loop that keeps them updated on the changing contexts of their work.
Not only does the Indian film industry now generate more buzz than ever before, capturing new attention even in highly competitive international markets, it has also been seeing unprecedented levels of corporate investments. Star salaries have always operated in an elevated sphere of their own, but when newbies start commanding multi-crore paypackets, lower-level workers, from smalltime actors and technicians to spot boys, expect a corresponding rise in their remunerations. That?s a key and good lesson of globalisation and liberalisation: that it raises cross-border, cross-class aspirations.
It must be noted, however, that the demands expressed by the Federation of Western India Cine Employees, the union spearheading the present strike, are quite modest. The union is agitating on behalf of workers who earn just $10.45-$12.50 a day, but have to wait for around three months before they get to collect their monies, and that?s for a workday that just goes on and on and on. All that is being demanded is on-time pay, a 12-hour maximum workday and improved safety conditions on the job site.
Critics, including director Anil Sharma of Gadar and Apne fame, say a strike is hardly the right way of going about things. With 40-50 film productions, including those by bigtime players like Subhash Gahi and Yash Raj Productions, already having been affected, not to mention important TV feeders like Balaji Telefilms, the strike is certainly giving pain to one and all in the industry. On top of everything else, the strike has coincided with the onset of the holiday season, when producers usually schedule their anticipated blockbusters. This year, it?s the Abhishek Bachchan starrer Dostana, Aamir Khan?s Ghajini and Shah Rukh Khan?s Rab ne bana di jodi that are supposed to hit the screens soon. Experts say, at this late stage, these films are unlikely to be affected, but the fate of the others waiting in the pipelines has now become quite uncertain, with an estimated 1.5 lakh workers having stopped work.
Timing a strike to coincide with the all-important holiday season was a strategy that the Hollywood writers used as well, when they went on strike in November 2007. This is an obvious but meaningful comparison. Just as the Bollywood strike follows on the back of globalisation-driven transformations in the industry, so was the case with the Hollywood writers? strike, which saw the 12,000-strong Writers Guild of America pitched against 350 film production companies and studios (the numbers ratio is dramatically different in the Indian case obviously), driven by epistemic changes in the industry. Specifically, the script writers wanted the studios to reward them a greater proportion of ?new media? royalties. The fracas continued longer than anticipated, going right up to threatening that holiest of grails, the Oscar ceremony. By the time it was finally resolved, with both studio and union negotiators doing some prolonged and recalcitrant gaming, industry losses had run into the billions. On an individual level, in continuing their shows without the writers, the likes of Jay Leno had lost their goodwill with the industry?s foot soldiers.
Right now, Bollyood giants like Amitabh Bachchan and Sharukh Khan are standing by the strikers. But it is questionable if they will continue to do so if the conflict takes on a long-term character. And on a pessimistic note about the efficacy of strikes in general, let?s remember that it was just a couple of years into independence that Indian theatre owners went on strike to protest high entertainment taxes, which still remain northbound.
renuka.bisht@expressindia.com
