The ongoing agitation by 1.5 lakh cine workers took a controversial turn on Sunday, as the city police prevented Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam from meeting veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan to plead their case and seek the latter’s support to the 12-day-old strike.
Nirupam, who had earlier in the day tweeted saying that the police had prevented him from coming out of his home to lead a lead a delegation of agitating cine workers to Bachchan’s Juhu residence “Jalsa”, said in the evening: “I was taken to the Versova Police Station where I was detained till 6.30 pm with the sole purpose of preventing me from leading a delegation of cine workers to Bachchan’s residence”.
Nirupam had on Saturday announced his plans to take a morcha of the agitating workers owing affiliation to Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), an umbrella organization of more than 22 different unions, to Bachchan’s residence to seek the actor’s support to the ongoing strike.
Talking to media persons after he came out of the Versova police station, Nirupam said, “Together with a delegation of cine workers, I planned to meet Bachchan to request him to support the agitation. Bachchan is role model for the film industry and his support to the agitation would make a lot of difference”.
“But by preventing me to meet the senior actor, the police conducted themselves like mere pawns in the hands of the ruling BJP functionaries. I have a strong reason to believe that the BJP is trying to break the legitimate agitation of FWICE workers,” the Mumbai Congress chief said.
“Despite our pleas, Bachchan continues to shoot for the upcoming ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ show in Film City with police security. This is shocking and we shall continue our protest,” Nirupam said.
The cine workers comprising spot boys, junior artistes, technicians, cameramen, art-directors, set designers, style photographers, fight masters, make-up persons and dress suppliers besides others have been agitating August 14 and demanding among other things eight-hour shifts, health insurance and job security. Meanwhile, a posse of police personnel was deployed outside Bachchan’s residence “Jalsa”.