The small producers of Telugu film industry are facing a lot of financial problems considering that despite not being the largest film industry, Tollywood pays the highest wages in the country. This has been causing a lot of problems owing to financial deficits and budgetary mismanagement.
Suresh Babu, ex-president of the AP Film Chamber of Commerce said, “We do pay a few unions more than B’wood producers. We have to live with it since we can’t hire non-union members. Unlike Hollywood, where a producer has the right to choose his workers, there’s no such freedom here.”
Nattikumar, chairman of the producers sector, however, complains that, “It’s because of a few producers who didn’t get their maths right that we are paying more. While calculating, they didn’t take into consideration additional expenses for food and overtime. We thus have to dole out ‘double’ amounts instead on hourly basis. The small producers are thus suffering. In fact Tamil producers are cursing us since their workers are referring to our wage structure.”
