Tamil News

Jayam Ravi, Udhayanidhi Stalin, Anirudh Ravichander, And Aishwarya Rajesh Contribute Towards FEFSI’s Fund For Daily Wage Workers

By Aparajitha Balu

Actors Jayam Ravi, Udhayanidhi Stalin, and Aishwarya Rajesh and composer Anirudh Ravichander are the latest among the film fraternity to contribute to the Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI) for the benefit of the daily wage workers. They have contributed five lakhs, ten lakhs, one lakh, and two lakhs respectively.

On March 23 afternoon, the Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI) put out a statement concerning the livelihood of daily wage workers and employees of the South Indian film industries. It spoke of the troubles they are facing owing to the Coronavirus outbreak which has halted film shooting, and other work. The federation made a request to the film fraternity to donate money for the procurement of rice bags, a basic need, for employees. The statement had also mentioned that 15,000 members of the 25,000 member organisation comprise daily wage workers who live off the income earned from shooting sets every day.

Apart from the stars, director Karthik Subbaraj (1 lakh), cinematographer R Rathinavel (55k), actor-producers Kushboo and Sundar C (5 lakhs), actor Ponvannan (25k) and several other artists, PRs and journalists have made their contributions in cash. Producer Kotapadi J Rajesh, Super Good Films and actor Jiiva, actor Yogi Babu, artists Shankar Krishnamoorthy, Jeeva Ravi, and several others have also contributed in kind.

Previously, actors Suriya, Karthi and their father Sivakumar had donated a sum of 10 lakhs to the organisation. Further, actors Rajinikanth (50 lakhs), Kamal Haasan (10 lakhs), Dhanush (15 lakhs), Sivakarthikeyan (10 lakhs), Vijay Sethupathi (10 lakhs), producer Lalit Kumar’s Seven Screen Studio (10 lakhs), director Shankar (10 lakhs), Harish Kalyan (1 lakh), production house Sathya Jyothi Films (1 lakh), director P Vasu (1 lakh), Supreme Sundar (1 lakh) director Lokesh Kanagaraj (50k), Aadukalam Naren (25k), Chithra Lakshmanan (25k), Actress Sachu Kumari (10k), and several other actors, producers, and still photographers had also made their monetary contributions.

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According to a statement by RK Selvamani, President of FEFSI, the total amount collected stands at 1.59 crores with 1,983 kilos of rice on April 2 afternoon. While he thanked all the stars for their contributions, he also expressed his displeasure at how the Tamil film industry wasn’t being as altruistic as the Telugu or Hindi film industry which has been making contributions in crores for daily wage workers.

While Salman Khan has contributed 50 crores to the Bollywood film industry workers, Megastar Chiranjeevi, who recently joined Twitter, has contributed 1 crore for the Telugu film industry daily wage workers.

FEFSI added that the amount contributed is not enough to help out the 18,000 workers of the industry and have thereby requested the film fraternity once again to donate generously.

“We are planning to give Rs 500 and 25 kilos of rice to 18,000 daily wage workers but the amount collected so far is not sufficient,” said RK Selvamani.

RK Selvamani At The 'Rajavamsam' Audio Launch
RK Selvamani At The ‘Rajavamsam’ Audio Launch

Meanwhile, following the statement put out by the South Indian Artists Association / Nadigar Sangam, the Federation of Small Screen Technicians, Tamilnadu has also put out a statement seeking financial assistance. It mentioned that it seeks to help out technicians, writers, and directors of the television industry.

Aparajitha Balu is a Alum at Silverscreen India, and can be reached by email at aparajitha@silverscreen.in