Kollywood in chaos: FEFSI says relief by top stars not enough, producer urges actors to cut salary

Coronavirus has turned things upside down across the world and many industries were badly hit. Tamil cinema is no exception, as shoots and other movie related activities have come to a grinding halt and the livelihood of workers is affected.

Recently, following a plea from FEFSI, many top stars including superstar Rajinikanth (Rs 50 lakh) donated money and food items to the workers. However, FEFSI has said this is not enough.

In a statement, FEFSI president RK Selvamani has compared how Tollywood and Bollywood actors like Salman Khan, Prabhas, Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh Babu, and Chiranjeevi are generously donating for the daily wagers in the respective industries.

He also acknowledged and thanked the actors like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Suriya, Karthi, Sivakarthikeyan, Vijay Sethupathi, Udhayanidhi Stalin, producers Thanu, Thiagarajan, Dilli Babu, RB Choudhary and many others for their contribution.

Statng that  the financial assistance is not enough to help out the 18,000 daily wagers of the industry, he has once again requested top stars, producers, actresses, technicians, and directors to generously contribute to this initiative.

Meanwhile, producer J Satish Kumar has issued a statement in which he has requested actors, directors, music composers, cinematographers, and technicians to sacrifice 30 per cent of their remuneration in their ongoing projects which are temporarily suspended due to the lockdown.

Satish Kumar, who is a National Award-winning producer, also requested financiers to not demand interest from producers for the next three months to ease out the pressure.

***********************