Members of the Directors Association allegedly disrupted shooting and
got into a scrap on the sets of producers Tony and Deeya Singh over pending director payments.
At least three members of the Indian Film and TV Directors’ Association (IFTDA), including the general secretary Iqbal Channa, were arrested by the police after a production member working for TV serial producers, Tony and Deeya Singh, lodged an FIR against the IFTDA members. The production member alleged that around 40 members of the directors association had indulged in acts of vandalism, by disrupting the shooting and trying to forcefully drag away the director from the sets.
Tony Singh, who has made successful serials like Banegi Apni Baat and Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, among several others, said, “I wasn’t on the set when these 40 members of the directors’ association tried to disrupt the shooting. So one of my production members lodged an FIR and his statement was taken. We are in a creative industry and I don’t think hooliganism is on. One of the directors of their organisation had stopped working with us and he had called us to ask for payments. We cleared it duly and the directors’ association knew about it. We even have the receipts of the cheques from the directors association.”
Singh added, “But suddenly, from about a week ago, people started calling and telling us that we had to pay the man again, and with current dated cheques. We had a problem with that, as it was the directors’ association that had not made the payment to the director. Apparently, they wanted five per cent more service charge and that’s why they didn’t give the director his cheque on time. They were also calling our directors and pressurising them to quit our production, threatening them with cancellation of their membership if they didn’t. This is blackmail. They even wanted to forcibly take the director along with them from my set. We have taken a strong stand against all this. I had complained earlier and then an FIR was lodged.”
Meanwhile, the arrested general secretary of the directors association rubbished the claims made by Singh. “We did not disrupt the shooting and we have not resorted to hooliganism. Directors are not being paid on time and it’s a huge problem we are fighting against. We thought the matter had been resolved on the sets of Singh’s production unit. But suddenly, we got a call saying that we had to visit the police station. Then cops came by and took us to Saki Naka police station. We assumed we had been brought for questioning. It was only in the police station that we came to know that we have been arrested. This is shocking. We will certainly fight this kind of treatment. We are a part of the same industry. Such behaviour is unacceptable,” he said.
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