Bollywood strike enters 3rd day

Mumbai (PTI): The indefinite strike called by Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) entered the third day on Friday with bodies of workers and producers holding negotiations to thrash out the differences.

Yashraj, Mehboob, Filmistan, Film City and other studios continued to remain shut. Shooting of daily soaps has been the worst hit. FWICE, which has over 1.5 lakh members in 22 unions covering different crafts of the film industry, are demanding stipulated wages on time and regulated working hours. They are also opposing producers, hiring workers who do not belong to any of the unions.

Actress Shilpa Shetty who hosts the ‘Big Boss’ reality show of ‘Colours’ entertainment channel, did not shoot for the eviction episode in support of the strike. The channel spokesperson said it has a bank of episodes, which can sustain the programming for only a week.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, commenting on the strike, wrote in his blog, “We remain at home and get that rare moment of spending time with the family. We wait for the relevant associations to give us directions on the next course of action,” he said.