Film industry technicians in Bengal are on course to get a 30 per cent hike in wages.

Swarup Biswas, the powerful chairman of the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India, has already clinched the deal for the technicians in the television industry. Next is the turn of film producers in Bengal.

The annual general meeting of the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association, which includes producers, distributors and exhibitors, is scheduled for Friday 19 September, after which a decision is likely to be announced.

“The deal is done,” Biswas told The Telegraph Online. He did not clarify whether the deal included both films and television.

Swarup Biswas. Facebook picture.

Around 7 per cent of the hike will go as “donation” to the federation for a Technicians’ Bhawan, multiple sources in the know told The Telegraph Online.

Some of the 26 guilds – of which all technicians are members – have refused to part with the donation, it is reliably learnt, but fear of the federation hangs so heavy on the industry that some of them even denied the hike.

“I have not received any such notification,” said Swapan Mazumdar, president of the Eastern India Cinematographers’ Association.

Producer Saibal Banerjee, who has produced and directed a number of TV series, confirmed the 30 per cent hike in wages.

“It has not been implemented yet though the agreement was signed two to three months ago. We have not been informed when the new wages will come into effect,” he said.

Sources in EIMPA said they have heard of the impending hike though officially it is yet to be tabled, discussed and passed. Not many in the approximately 600-member body are likely to raise any objections when it eventually makes it to the talks table.

“The wage hike would be accepted. Problem is not so much with the hikes, but the manner in which it is being decided. We have heard that part of the wages would have to be deposited for the Technicians’ Bhawan. Why should the producers pay for it?” asked a producer, requesting anonymity.

When asked about the proposed Technicians’ Bhawan, Swarup Biswas replied: “Je bolechhe aapna ke takei jigyes korun [Ask whoever has told you].”

Swarup Biswas, along with his elder brother and state minister Aroop Biswas, has been calling the shots in the Bengali film and television industry since the Trinamool came to power 14 summers ago.

“There is no way that the producers can turn down Swarup’s wish,” said an EIMPA official who did not want to be named.

During EIMPA’s AGM last year, Swarup “proposed” a security deposit of Rs 5 lakh for every producer before a shoot commenced to prevent any default on payment of technicians. Despite objections from a section of the producers, EIMPA officials agreed to the proposal.

An average Bengali non-action film costs around Rs 1.5 crore. Add action and music to the mix and the budget gets to be around Rs 2 crore. This cost is minus the two stars, Dev and Jeet.

“A hike of 30 per cent is not going to make much of a difference to a big producer. A big production house like SVF will not be affected,” said Krishna Daga, a former EIMPA top boss.

Daga, who is busy with his next film to be shot in Chennai and Jharkhand, said technicians in Kolkata are paid far below the industry norms elsewhere.

“In Chennai everything is double. What makes the difference is discipline. Here we will have to keep calling the technicians whether they are reporting or not. In Chennai the technicians report on time,” said Daga.

“The biggest problem that we face in Kolkata is we have to hire even those technicians whom we do not need.”

The alleged demand for seven to eight per cent of the wages, an industry insider said, mirrored the prototype of the real estate industry in the film sector.

The federation has its hand in the hiring of every technician, make-up artists and spot-boys. Irrespective of a film’s budget a producer has to hire a crew of 120 or face the federation’s wrath. Directors who have protested against the federation’s diktats at times have been blacklisted and their shootings stalled indefinitely.

Given the situation that the directors are faced with, the technicians and other crew members mostly living on daily wages cannot afford to fall foul of the federation bosses.

“The technicians are stakeholders in the industry like us,” said producer Firdausul Hasan, who is awaiting his next release, Joto Kando Kolkatatei, written and directed by Anik Datta.

“The industry is not going through a good patch right now. In a one-crore film, the budget for technicians is not more than 15-20 per cent right now. But this needs to be discussed,” he added.