Amid complete shutdown in the Telugu film industry, megastar Chiranjeevi denied reports that he met the protesting workers and promised them that their demands would be met. He said that the decision to meet the demands or not will be taken by all stakeholders and not one individual alone.
Turning down the false reports, Chiranjeevi took to his X handle and wrote, "It has come to my attention that some individuals claiming to be the members of the Film Federation have gone to the media falsely claiming that I have met them and given an assurance that their demands regarding a 30 per cent wage hike, etc., shall be met and that I will be starting shooting very soon. I wish to set the record straight that I have not met anyone from the federation (sic)."
He went on to say, "This is an industry issue and no individual, including me, can give any unilateral assurances to solve any problem one way or the other. The film chamber is the apex body of the Telugu Film Industry and only the Film chamber as a collective will engage in discussions with all concerned and arrive at a just solution. Until such time, making such false claims is unacceptable (sic)."
"I condemn all such baseless and motivated claims to create confusion among all stakeholders. Please note (sic)," he concluded.
Why is Tollywood facing shutdown?
For those unversed, all shoots in the Telugu film industry went kaput after Telugu Film Employees Federation announced a strike due to the longstanding row over pending wage revisions.
The workers' body demanded a 30 per cent hike in the daily wages of Tollywood workers, and said that the revisions in wages have not been made for the past three years now.
The federation also demanded that the wages must be distributed to the workers on a daily basis, rather than holding it up in pending payments.
The Telugu Film Producers Council and the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce reportedly offered a hike of 5 per cent hike which the workers rejected, and went on an indefinite strike.
