The news of Ranveer Singh being issued a non-cooperation directive by the Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees (FWICE), which was officially announced on Monday, has come as a shock for everyone in the industry and outside.
While FWICE largely acts as a mediator between members in cases of conflicts and negotiations, this is a rare occasion where the organisation has made such a move against a leading actor. It must also be noted that the directive comes not solely due to Ranveer Singh’s breach of contract with Don 3 makers, but also not responding to FWICE’s attempts to reach out to him to resolve the matter. According to a report by ETimes, Ranveer Singh only sent an email as official communication from his end, where he stated that this dispute doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of FWICE.
While FWICE has categorically stated that it never used the word "ban", in effect, this directive means FWICE members are advised to not work on any project that Ranveer is associated with.
However, as many have pointed out, FWICE’s directive does not hold any legal merit since the organisation is a trade union, and not a judicial body of any kind. According to some reports, Ranveer is also not legally bound to present his case in front of FWICE members.
However, if he does not approach FWICE to resume the conversations for a settlement or negotiation, chances are high that the production for Pralay could face some major roadblocks, both in terms of assembling crew members and executing the shoot in an organised manner. Pralay, which is being produced by Hansal Mehta and will be directed by Jai Mehta, was announced a few weeks ago. The project is being mounted as a zombie thriller.
Speaking to ANI, FWICE chief advisor Ashoke Pandit said, "We have also requested other producers to take a stance on this, and take decisions, so that this wrongful trend doesn't get any encouragement."
Meanwhile, a few FWICE members have now spoken up about the issue, bringing up the body's own irregularities which need to be tackled with first. In a conversation with SCREEN, renowned film editor Shweta Venkat said, “When film editors had come to you for help setting up a dialogue with producers, where was this efficiency? It has been three years. Or maybe we weren’t cool enough. Basically producer ya actor bano (become either a producer or an actor)."
Among others, Kaante (2002) filmmaker Sanjay Gupta pointed out how it’s the federation members and technicians who will have to bear the brunt of this ban, losing their livelihoods over an issue they have no control over. He penned on his X page, “When an A List Hero shoots there are more than 300 workers working on sets. Ban him and you are not stopping him but depriving the workers of their livelihood. What sense does it even make?” Aditya Kriplani, whose film Main Actor Nahi Hoon released recently, too spoke about the workers being the collateral damage in this dispute.
On the other hand, Chunky Panday said in a statement that he too was banned once, but the ban was lifted after he issued an apology.
While the news of Ranveer exiting Don 3 was out in December 2025, it was in April 2026 that Farhan Akhtar reportedly first approached FWICE, stating that the Don 3 producers are compelled to bear major financial losses, amounting to nearly Rs 45 crores, after Ranveer decided to walk out of the film, weeks before the shoot was scheduled to commence. Meanwhile, Ranveer’s reported response was that Don 3 team was not prepared, either in terms of a bound script or production scale required to commence the shooting.
The issue was first taken to Producers Guild of India, before being moved to Indian Film and Television Directors Association (IFTDA). Since IFTDA is one of the 32 unions affiliated under the FWICE umbrella, FWICE eventually came into the picture.
