Director Bharathiraja, the President of Tamil Film Active Producers Association has issued a statement supporting the producers. According to the statement, actors and technicians who are earning more than Rs. 10 lakhs are requested to reduce their remuneration by 30 percent.
The statement read, “Tamil Cinema is undergoing several challenging situations due to the impact of Corona. Producers, who invested crores of rupees are facing a difficult situation to recover their investment. In this situation, it is the responsibility of all actors and technicians to come forward and help the producers, whose films are under production and are stuck due to this lockdown.
Producers can manage to come out of this trying condition and release their films smoothly, only if their total investment in films reduce by at least 40 to 50 percent. Only then, even if their films do not fetch big revenues, they can come out without much loss.
In both Telugu and Malayalam film industries, all artistes and technicians have come forward and accepted 30 to 50 percent reduction in their current salaries. In Tamil cinema, a few actors have come forward to reduce their salaries by 30 percent considering the difficult situation of the producers. While we appreciate their kind gestures, it is not enough. Only when all actors, actresses and technicians, who get a remuneration of Rs. 10 lakhs and above come forward and accept a reduction of 30 percent in their salaries, producers can reduce their overall cost, complete their films and release them without any financial difficulty. We are making this request only for the films which were under production and are stuck due to Covid-19 and not for new films you are signing.”