Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) president BN Tiwari on Friday said veteran filmmaker Vashu Bhagnani owes over Rs 65 lakh to crew members who worked on his three films ‘Mission Raniganj’, ‘Ganpat’ and ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’.

Tiwari said that Bhagnani’s company Pooja Entertainment owes Rs 33.13 lakh to director Tinu Desai, who directed his 2023 film ‘Mission Raniganj’. Akshay Kumar was in the lead role in this film.

Tiwari said the production house owes Rs 31.78 lakh to over 250 set workers who worked on films like “Mission Raniganj”, Tiger Shroff’s “Ganapath” (2023) and Akshay Kumar and Shroff’s “Bade Miyan Chote Miyan” (2024).

Bhagnani remained unavailable for comment.

In a complaint filed with the Indian Film and Television Directors Association (IFTDA) on March 19, 2023, Desai said that he worked on ‘Mission Raniganj’ from February 2022 to October 6, 2023 (the release date of the film) and the amount to be received as per the contract was Rs 4,03,50,000 and he has received only Rs 3,70,36,092 till date.

“In March last year, the ‘Mission Raniganj’ director had filed a written complaint about not receiving his dues of Rs 33.13 lakh from Vashu Bhagnani. We have been contacting Pooja Entertainment but they have not paid yet. They have said they will clear the dues by the end of July,” Tiwari told PTI.

When contacted by PTI, Desai declined to comment.

According to the FWICE president, IFTDA wrote several letters to Pooja Entertainment but they kept delaying the payment.

Tiwari said, “In February they sought time to make the payment citing Jackky Bhagnani’s wedding through an email to IFTDA dated February 20, 2024 and subsequently did not respond. After FWICE wrote a letter to them in March 2024, they again sought time to pay and said they would do so after the release of their film ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’, but that did not happen.”

He said, “What they are doing is unfair. They are living a luxurious life and when it comes to paying the dues, they make excuses. In their latest email, they have said that they will pay the dues by the end of July, but if they do not do so then our staff will not work on any of their films.”

Union leader Rakesh Maurya claimed that around 200 to 250 workers associated with the Film Studio Setting and Allied Mazdoor Union have not yet received payment of Rs 31,78,327 from Pooja Entertainment.

“There are three to four categories of workers who make sets and they are usually paid between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,400 per day. The outstanding dues of an employee could run to Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 or more,” Maurya of the Film Studio Setting and Allied Mazdoor Union told PTI.

They have around 48,000 daily wage workers in various departments like set guard, lightmen and spot boys.

FWICE general secretary Ashok Dubey told PTI that it has been a long time since the release of ‘Mission Raniganj’, ‘Ganpat’ and ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’, but payments to workers are still pending.

Dubey says, “The workers are helpless. Artists get paid upfront, but not our workers. It is heartbreaking to see the condition of workers in the industry; they have no guarantee of a job here. Even when they go to work on a project, they don’t get paid on time. They have to wait for months to get their hard-earned money.”

Last week, several crew members had accused Pooja Entertainment of not paying dues and sacking most of the employees.

In a statement to the media, Bhagnani had said that those claiming that Pooja Entertainment has not paid their dues yet should negotiate with the banner.

He had rubbished reports of his production banner shutting down, saying, “If there are people who claim we owe them money, they should come forward and talk to us. Do they have a proper contract with Pooja Entertainment? Have they filed any case in this regard? There are many ways to sort this out instead of murmuring on social media.”

Dubey said that the workers should get their payments as soon as possible.

He said, “There is a rule in Marathi films that if the workers do not get their daily wages from the producers then the producers will not be given the censor certificate, we also want the same rule.”

Pooja Entertainment has produced hits in the past like ‘Coolie No 1’, ‘Hero No 1’, Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda’s ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’, ‘Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai’, ‘Rehnaa Hai Tere Dil Mein’, ‘Om Jai Jagdish’ and ‘Shaadi No 1’, but their last few films have not been successful at the box office.