Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment denies not paying daily wage workers on Mirzapur 3 sets

Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment landed in soup after Film Studios Setting and Allied Mazdoor Union (FSSAMU) accused the production house of not paying dues of Rs 20-25 lakh to some 300 daily-wage workers, working on the sets of Mirzapur 3.

On Tuesday, Excel Entertainment denied the accusations. As per a Mid-Day report, Excel Entertainment reportedly did not give any response to the demands of the union, but after a letter to the media was released by FSSAMU, the company contacted the union and promised to settle the dues in the next 48 hours.

According to the report, the company issued a clarification in a statement that read, “This is the first time we are being made aware about such a complaint raised by the union. We would like to further [state] that the FSSAMU has not reached out to Excel through letters, e-mails or phone calls. Excel currently has seven to eight projects under production, and none of these projects have any non-payment-related issues. For the past 22 years of us being in the business, we have never come across any non-payment complaints. Excel has a strict payment compliance policy whereby we directly make payments to daily-wage workers and not to any union. We will investigate this matter from our end. We would like to mention that Excel enjoys a stellar reputation in the industry for treating all collaborators with equal respect and dignity.”

FSSAMU general secretary Gangeshwarlal Shrivastav, as per the report, however, said the union had sent three letters to the production house; the first one was reportedly sent on May 30. The union later wrote a letter to the media stating that the workers were made to work for extended hours that went beyond the permissible limits as per the labour law. The union also alleged that the workers were not provided with quality food or adequate seating provisions on Mirzapur 3 sets.

“Over 300 daily wagers have been working on the Mirzapur 3 sets since May. It has been over three months since they have been paid. We didn’t get any response [to our letters] from the production house. After we released the letter to the media, Excel contacted us and promised to settle the dues in 48 hours, but we want that in writing,” Gangeshwarlal Shrivastav told Mid-Day.

Mirzapur’s season 3 was announced earlier this year. The show stars Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Vijay Varma and Rasika Dugal among others.