Behnein shoot comes to a stop; Workers' union stress on 12 hour work shifts

Television artists and workers will breathe a sigh of relief as there is a buzz suggesting that the workers' union, Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) is in talks with all production houses to start a 12 hour work rule. A source says, "Talks are on for many days now about workers having to work only for 12 hours. But most of the production houses were unable to follow this rule and so the union members have decided to take action. They are visiting almost every set to check on the shooting schedules. Few production houses which had to face the problem and made to pack up the shoot before time were Balaji Telefilms, Rajshri Productions, Hats Off and few others. Our priority is to bring in discipline and we want all production houses to wrap up their shoot before 9pm every day. So there would be no more late night shoots. “Yesterday we did go on the sets of Behnein at Naigaon and had to stop their shooting. They agreed for pack up, hopefully this rule will come into action soon.” An actor from the show confirmed this news but refused to comment about it. Producer JD Majethia says, "I make sure that my unit works only for 12 hours (9am to 9pm) and yesterday when they wanted to have a 2 pm shift I canceled it. It is true talks are on for implementation of such a rule. But my unit had no issue." Dinesh Chaturvedi, general secretary, FWICE, confirms this and says, "We have a meeting regarding this issue today with all production houses, by night the final decision will be taken. Our members did go on various sets to stop shooting of shows which were making their unit work for more than 12 hours." Officials from Bajaji and Rajshri remained unavailable for comment.