Protest by Tollywood workers throws new light on industry’s functioning

Shooting of movies in and around the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad came to a grinding halt on June 22, as more than 20,000 Telugu film workers launched a massive protest, demanding, among other things, a hike in their wages, which is a demand that has been pending for quite some time now.

The leaders of the Cine Workers Union maintained that they were forced to take the step on account of the unresponsive attitude towards their demands by the Telugu film chamber for the last six months.

Since my days as a child actor, I have had an active association with the film industry as well as the workers. Concerned by the situation, I started thinking about the relationships between workers and the management in the country.

I recalled, in that context, an experience from my career in civil service in the Andhra Pradesh, cadre. In the year 1975, when I was posted as Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes of Kurnool Division, a unique type of protest was staged by cinema theatres of the two districts within the jurisdiction of the division, namely Kurnool, and Anantapur districts.

Noticing that large-scale avoidance of Entertainment Tax (ET) due to the local bodies taking place on account of under-reporting spectatorship in the cinema halls, I devised a method to deal with the issue. A detailed proforma was prepared, which included questions eliciting information on the seating capacity, in different classes, the rates of tickets, the number of people employed by the management, the amount of electricity consumed in a given month as well as the number of carbons used for projection of the films by the projector (as such was the technology of those days) of a given cinema theatre. The proforma was supplied to all district officials irrespective of their subject and were asked to visit cinema theatres during their tours and fill it up.

It was a completely non-invasive and harmless kind of exercise, seemingly only aimed at gathering information. After a month or so, the available information was compiled and duly analysed. The result was that there was a significant gap between the expenditure incurred and the income shown. All the theatres, apparently, were incurring continuous losses!

Approximately, 17 offices of film distributors were located in Guntakal town. All of them were subjected to a simultaneous surprise raid. On the same night, and under my instructions, officials also conducted a surprise inspection of a theatre in that town. Noticing sharp variations, between the number of tickets shown as sold, and the number of people watching the movie, they ordered the shutdown of the theatre. The accounts seized from the offices of the distributors during the operation showed alarming variations between the facts as reported by them and the corresponding facts as gathered in the exercise from the theatres.

Notices were then issued to all the theatres in the region to show cause why the revenue lost on account of the under reporting should not be asked to be paid. It was, in a way, a somewhat extra-legal and foolhardy step as, at that time, there was no statute providing for such an action. Quite naturally, the managements of theatres collectively decided to shut down indefinitely all the 150 cinema halls located in the two districts, as a protest.

The news of the situation reached the highest levels in the government of the state and A Krishnaswamy, a very senior official, in those days known as the First Member of the Board of Revenue, next in seniority only to the Chief Secretary of the State, was asked to inquire into the matter. Krishnaswamy accordingly visited Kurnool and had a meeting with representatives of the theatre owners. After giving them a patient hearing, he bluntly informed them that they were not running essential services such as hospitals or schools. The public was only being denied a form of entertainment which they could well do without. He declined to intervene in the matter and sent a report accordingly to the government. Sensing the reluctance of the government to respond to their protest, the theatre owners gradually reopened their establishments. Interestingly enough, that episode led to a statute being enacted, empowering ET to be collected with retrospective effect, when evaded or avoided, and carrying a hitherto unavailable provision, for a best judgement assessment, to boot – a provision that empowers an authority to make a rough estimate lost revenue in the absence of firm facts. A good example of a futile protest.

India, as is known, operates a mixed economy, blending elements of socialism and capitalism, allowing for both private and public sectors to function with the government. The idea is to balance free-market principles with social welfare goals. As a part of the system, various incentives are offered to industries to promote investment, employment, and economic development, such as subsidies, tax breaks, and exemptions as well as support for specific sectors and regions.

On the other hand, labour laws have also been put in place, which offer a wide range of protection to workers, including the rights to fair wages, safety, working conditions, regulated hours, social security and non-discrimination. The laws also established mechanisms for dispute resolution and to ensure that the right to organise trade unions is protected.

In one office, employees were upset about the management cutting down on coffee supplies. To make their point, they staged a “coffee strike” by bringing their own coffee machines and setting up a mini café in the break room. They even put up a sign: “Powered by employees, not management.” The management eventually gave in, reinstating the coffee budget.

(The writer was formerly

Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)