Are Tamil actors behind Telugu industry’s strike?

CHENNAI: A few producers in Tollywood has gone on an indefinite strike starting from Monday.

The Active Telugu Film Producers Guild and the Telugu Film Producers’ Council in a collaborative decision have stopped the shoots of their respective films until they find workable situations.

Last week, the President of the Telugu Film Producers’ Council told us on how actors’ remuneration is haunting the production houses and that they will not be given daily allowances from now on.

However, our sources in the Telugu industry say that the issue has now escalated because of the exorbitant salaries charged by Tamil actors working for Telugu production houses.

“A top star in Tamil has charged over Rs 100 crore in addition to the GST for his current movie produced by a big production house in Hyderabad. Apart from that a Tamil character artiste charges Rs 4 lakh a day. These incidents have irked Telugu stars. In fact, one of the top Telugu actor immediately demanded for a 30 per cent raise in his salary which made the producers take this call. We would know in a week’s time if a solution is in sight for the issue,” a source told DT Next.

Vijay’s Vaarisu, Rajinikanth’s Jailer and Venkat Prabhu’s film with Naga Chaitanya are some of the films on hold as they are being planned to shoot in Hyderabad.