Unions of film employees and representatives of political parties claim that foreigners are being hired in large numbers as junior actors, make-up artists, hair stylists, dancers, action directors, stuntmen, costume designers, art directors, and technicians in Bollywood.
Is the growing trend of hiring foreigners as artists, technicians etc taking away jobs of their Indian counterparts in the film industry? Well, film union leaders say the threat is real.
They also claim many foreigners working in Bollywood don’t possess a proper work permit, and that the Mumbai Police seldom act.
The Indian film industry, like its counterparts in sectors like Information Technology, telecom etc, is increasingly hiring foreign talents in the fields such as cinematography, direction, production, script-writing, and junior artists and dancers.
The majority of foreigners are being fired from countries like the UK, Russia, and Uzbekistan to name a few.
Unions of film employees and representatives of political parties claim that foreigners are being hired in large numbers as junior actors, make-up artists, hair stylists, dancers, action directors, stuntmen, costume designers, art directors, and technicians in Bollywood.
It may appear as a win-win situation for the film industry and foreigners as the industry gets a variety of talent and the foreigners earn a steady income, but the unions differ.
“We all know that Indian film and advertisement industries are ranked first in the world as far as the number of films produced per year is concerned. The annual turnover is pegged at USD 2.7 billion. Indian cinema is composed of various regional language film industries employing a large number of people. However, the Indian film industry is now facing a major issue with the foreign crew replacing their Indian counterparts. Many of these foreigners are working illegally in India in violation of visa norms,” a union leader said.
Why employing foreign crew should not be banned the way Pakistani actors and technicians are not allowed to work in the Indian film industry, he questioned. Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) chairman Ashok Dubey told PTI.
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