Soon after the announcement poster of Welcome To The Jungle got here out, it landed in an unexpected controversy. The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) despatched a letter to all of the actors — Akshay Kumar, Raveena Tandon, Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Disha Patani amongst others — together with the producers, director in addition to folks related to the undertaking, to not begin the shoot, until its producer Firoz Nadiadwallah clears the pending dues to director Anees Bazmee for the earlier instalment of the franchise.
Now, Bazmee completely tells us the course of occasions and the way the case has been happening for the final eight years, however no fee has been made by Nadiadwallah until date.
“The last film I did with Firoz was Welcome Back in 2015, and ₹5 crore from my remuneration were left to be paid by the production house. However, at the time of payment, he started saying, ‘We have suffered losses and won’t be able to pay you’. Later, they asked me to reduce or wave off some percentage,” remembers Bazmee, who finally agreed to waive off ₹3 crore.
Stating that until date he has not obtained the remaining quantity, the 60-year-old additional reveals, “I signed an agreement, and was expecting to get the remaining ₹2 crore. But, when I asked for the payment, Firoz said he’ll issue me a cheque. However, since the production house had already delayed the payment a lot, the federation had got involved, and therefore, the cheque was made in their name. After all this, on the clearance date, cheque bounced. So till date, they haven’t paid my remaining remuneration for Welcome 2 even after waiving off ₹3 crore.”
While Nadiadwala, Bazmee and the representatives from the federation had just a few conferences in these eight years to resolve the problem, nothing has been settled but.
“Meetings toh hoti rehti thi, but aaj tak paise nahi mile hain. They wanted me to do Welcome 3. I asked them what about my previous payment, and I was told, ‘Aap picture karo, hum aapki nayi, puraani, sab payment clear kar denge’. But despite all the negotiations, nothing positive has come out,” says a disillusioned Bazmee.
However, he clarifies that non-payment wasn’t the explanation he didn’t conform to direct Welcome To The Jungle. He goes on to elucidate, “I even told Firoz not to mix up two things. These are entirely different matters. Even I wanted to do the third instalment, but there were other reasons for saying no to it.
Though the issue has been going on since 2015, Nadiadwallah was not working on any project, and hence no action could be taken. Bazmee tells us, “They were not making any film and hence we could not do much. But now when they announced Welcome to the Jungle, the federation sent out notice to all the cast members and others involved in the film.”
FWICE President BN Tiwari, who had shared that the signed cheques have been bounced, additionally confirms the course of occasions. “When we questioned Nadiadwallah and his team about the cheque getting bounced, he said it was signed by mistake. He even denied ki humne aisi koi baat ki thi, and stopped responding to us. Hum police toh hain nahin hain ki ghar jaakar ladai karenge. We acted after this new film was announced. We have sent letter to all the actors as well as all the involved production houses and expect them to comply with the request. If they don’t, we will issue a non cooperation notice against their names as well,” he shares, including that the federation has now demanded the producers to pay full quantity of ₹5 crore to Bazeee. “The agreement that Firoz and Bazmee signed had the clause that if the cheque bounces and the payment is not made, penalty of 20 percent of the amount will be added every year. Since they failed to pay the negotiated amount at the time of settlement, they will now have to pay approximately 5 crores,” he tells us
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
