THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is a slight let up in the crisis gripping the Malayalam film industry with a section of the Film Producers Association arriving at an agreement with FEFKA, the organisation of technicians.The consensus, which includes the formation of a joint consultative committee on the lines of the mechanism in vogue in the industry in other states, was reached at a meeting convened at the behest of the state government here on Friday.The formation of the committee is intended to ensure strict discipline and austerity measures in the industry and create ground for a viable growth.The package will be finalised and announced within a couple of days, Minister for Forests-Sports-Culture K B Ganeshkumar, who presided over the meet, said.However, a section of the members of the Producers’ Association led by president Siyad Kocker has maintained that a final decision on the proposals which emerged at the end of Friday’s consultations would be taken only after the genera l body meeting of the Association to be held shortly.As per the agreement reached, status quo will be maintained on the payment of bata amount to technicians till August, whereas the shooting schedule will be strictly limited to 10 p.m.Revision of the bata structure will be taken up later.Also, shoots will be held henceforth on the basis of the framework in a call sheet only, said director B Unnikrishnan.Producer’s Association secretary Suresh Kumar was also present at the briefing.The joint cons u l t a t i v e committee will look into various issues in the industry and it will be reviewed every month.Each film slated to be produced will be analysed on the basis of cost and vaibility factors, the Minister said.The committee will have representatives of AMMA, FEFKA and the Film Producers’ Association. The Association had decided to stop production of films recently, pointing out the rising costs and absence of mechanism to keep the trend in check. Though a section of the producers have come to the rescue of the government amid the continuing standoff between the later and other stake-holders, including the striking Film Exhibitors Federation, the state has been opened up for a wide introduction of other language films as Malayalam movies of mega stars have hardly made it to any box-office hit chart in recent times.The Minister has maintained that the stance of a few movie house owners not to screen Malayalam movies cannot be accepted, as the Chief Minister has assured that the privilege of owners for service tax share will not be withdrawn
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