The elections to select a legitimate body to run the affairs of the union will be held on May 13.
“After the elections, priority would be to ensure that the artistes get their due,” Kotagiri Venkateshwara Rao, president of the federation told TOI.
Members of the A P Cine Artistes Union are those who may just have a fleeting role in the film, uttering one or two dialogues. They are different from the big artistes like heroes, heroines and character artistes who are part of the Movie Artistes Association (MAA).
The MAA artistes have bigger and meaty roles and receive a remuneration as per the contract with producers. However, those of the A P Cine Artistes Union get a measly Rs 900 a day. The services of the cine artistes may be used anywhere in the film as the producer or director decides.
All the unions of various crafts under the A P Film Industry Employees Federation are quite strong in extracting the right amount of wages from producers. What, however, has been happening is that middlemen and agents are taking away part of the wages and handing over only a percentage of it to the cine artistes.
On Sunday, the A P Cine Artistes Union held its general body meeting and decided to hold elections on the second Sunday of May.
However, of late, the union itself has been going through a turmoil as elections to the body have not been held for a long time. The matter also went to the court and the A P Film Industry Employees Federation is trying to set things in order and conduct elections.
Squabbles between the functionaries of the two unions have reportedly put many issues of the cine artistes on the backburner for a long time. There are more than 900 members in the union who will elect their new body next month.
