Did you know? As per a 2017 report by consultancy business Deloitte, the overall range of employees utilized in the Indian films, tv, and online media industries is 7.4 hundred thousand, estimating that the business generates indirect employment for roughly 23.6 lakh folks around the country; although obtaining employment isn\’t a tricky task within this industry but surviving here positively is.

No doubt this field provides huge name and fame, but it solely comes with time, talent, labor, and patience. All that glitters is not gold, similarly, even though this field shines bright once seen from outside but when you dig deeper one gets to understand regarding the particular scenario. Everyone desires to work here, believing it to an exciting field, thus there are more candidates who apply for it than jobs to fill. The operating hours here are terribly long, particularly for recruits. Competition is fierce, if one cannot settle for the working conditions, infinite candidates are within the wings able to step in and take up the assigned job.

In addition, there has been a lot of news recently about the inhumane working hours and poor facilities of workers in the TV and film industries. The FWICE (Federation of West India Cine Employees) union represents more than 5 billion members in Maharashtra, including live boys, photographers, makeup artists, art directors, electricians, and voice-over artists. In 2017, these film workers participated in a 15-day protest in the film city, demanding improved working conditions. The main problem being that the working hours are extendd from 1 pm to 6 pm (depending on the shift), with no increase in the salary, and the studio lacked sanitation facilities. To this end, they subsequently contacted MSHRC in October 2017. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, recent inspections of this package were suspended.

Earlier, there existed a practice of signing a memorandum of understanding between producers, workers, and artists every five years, but it continued until 2015. These memorandums of understanding helped establish minimum wages for workers, but after 2015, it is now free Commerce (business without any restrictions). The workers have lost all bargaining power and cannot even dare to fight with the producers because they are afraid of losing their jobs. In addition, the studio staff does not have health or life insurance, and in the absence of a memorandum of understanding, they are not even receiving the minimum wage.

During the covid 19 pandemic, the situation in every sector has changed drastically, even in the field of television and cinema. Any channel can now cancel any show midway if they see low TRPs. So what about the crores that the producers have invested in hiring the staging, artists, and all the other day-to-day expenses; everything goes down to the trash heap. In the occurrence of such situations, the producers restrict themselves from taking any legal action, as this may affect the relationship with the channel and for fear of not receiving future projects and also possibly being included blacklist. Eventually, all of this affects the wages of workers who work there in general.

The unorganized nature of the Hindi film industry and the absence of industry-specific laws brought this particular scenario to the film and television industry. Bollywood was considered an industry under GATS obligations in 2000, where film activity was notified under the Industrial Development Bank of India Act 1964, however, the law did not include the labor law motion. Although the Cine Workers and Cinema Workers Act and regulations establish minimum working conditions for cinema workers, these laws have not been properly enforced. And now, as said before, the lack of MoUs creates a miserable situation for those who work in the cinema. Therefore, in order to properly uphold the rights of these workers, a specific body must be established to look into the matter and deal with the cases related to these crises. A grievance room must be established for workers in the industry where they can submit all their questions and problems and this committee must be appointed to assist them. Besides that, the concept of MOU needs to be brought back in order to regularize the industry.