Word: bollywood
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...some ways, these problems are typical of an industry gradually modernizing and finding itself caught between the Bollywood of yesterday, which was run like a family business and worked on connections and affiliations, and the Bollywood of tomorrow, where production houses will be run like corporations. "As of now, age-old values like loyalty to employers and affiliation to employees are still meaningful," says Barjatya. "For example, an established production house like Rajshri pays old employees' medical bills even though we're not legally obligated to. And workers remain loyal to us in view of that." But as newer production...
There's been no lights, camera or action in Bollywood since Wednesday, when roughly 150,000 film workers began a strike to demand better wages, less punishing working hours and a ban on non-unionized labor. With no dancing girls to mysteriously appear out of nowhere when a star begins to sing, and no spot-boys to keep the sets functioning, film and TV shoots have ground to a halt because of the action brought by the Federation of Western India Cine Employees. "All shoots are off. The producers have not stuck to the terms of the agreement they signed...
...paid at all for months) and that they have resorted to a strike only after repeated warnings failed to yield results. The strikers argue there is no justifiable reason why producers should not be paying up, given the prosperity the industry is enjoying as a result of booming demand. Bollywood recorded revenues close to $1.9 billion in 2007, which are likely to rise to $3.9 billion by 2012, while advertising revenue for cable TV was $1.02 billion in 2005 and is forecast to grow to $1.8 billion by 2010. Film-trade analyst Komal Nahta says...
...claims as specious. "It's hard to believe [the strikers' charge that] there are producers who haven't paid workers for months. There's so much work around these days, workers would simply leave and go elsewhere," says Kavita Barjatya, head of TV production at Rajshri Films, one of Bollywood's oldest and best-known production houses. Many producers say they will resist what they see as bullying by unionized workers and have vowed to hold out indefinitely. But the union is betting that producers will be forced to relent by the massive daily losses and administrative chaos caused...
...Tata-AIG, an Indian joint venture with troubled U.S. insurer AIG, has been asked by Indian insurance regulators to show proof of its solvency. The market turbulence is especially worrying for India's middle classes, who have just begun investing on their own in a big way. (A new Bollywood movie, Saas, Bahu aur Sensex - Mother-in-Law, Daughter-in-Law and the Sensex - captures the craze.) Bhandarkar, an avid investor himself, is worried: "How can a $60 billion loss not have an impact?" When it does, the party may finally have to end. - by Jyoti Thottam...