4 minutes agoAuthor: Kiran Jain, Virendra Mishra
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In this episode of Reel to Real, we learned about the process of contracts between actors and production houses.
In the film industry, a contract is made between every actor and the production house, which decides everything related to their work. This contract is not limited to fees only. This also includes their working hours, shooting conditions and things related to their image.
In this episode of Reel to Real, we will understand how contracts are made between actors and production houses? To fully understand the process, we spoke to actor Amar Upadhyay, advocate and media entertainment law expert Rohit Pradhan and celebrity advocate Suvigya Vidyarthi.
What are the things included in the contract?
Apart from the payment, the contract also mentions what kind of make-up room facilities the actors will be provided with during the shooting. If the shooting is outdoor then the vanity van will be single door or double door. It depends on who the actor is?
If you have to go somewhere outside Mumbai for shooting, then the production house will provide transportation facilities by car, train and flight. Which actor will be accommodated in a five star hotel and which in a normal hotel. This is also written in the contract.
Apart from the payment, it is also written in the contract that how much time the actor will give for shooting in 6 hours, 8 hours or 12 hours. The number of days and in how many parts the payment will be given is also mentioned in the contract. Apart from all this, no pregnancy clause and notice period clause are also mentioned.
Amar Upadhyay initially worked in some modeling assignments and due to this he was offered his first TV show ‘Dekh Bhai Dekh’.
It is very important to read the contract before signing it – Amar Upadhyay
It is often seen that when any actor starts his career in the industry, he is so excited that he does not read the contract properly. Amar Upadhyay has suffered the consequences of this. He says- The first contract I signed was for a home appliance ad. Even after the contract ended, when the ad was running, I talked to the production house. I was told that this would last a lifetime. I felt something was wrong. I looked at the contract carefully again, there was no mention of lifetime in it. This is how I was trapped.
Contracts of big stars are made as per their wish.
Advocate and media entertainment law expert Rohit Pradhan said – There are three types of actors. Whose separate contracts are made. First there are the new and younger actors. Second are little-known stars and third are big stars which include people like Shahrukh and Salman Khan. Production houses take great care of big stars and contracts are made accordingly. Apart from these, the actors should keep in mind what the role is like. How many days of shooting is there and how will the payment be received and in how many parts?
The contract also includes promotional activities
The contract also includes promotional activities. For example, at the time of the release of the film, the actor may have to go to shopping malls, podcasts or interviews for promotion. According to me, there should also be a clause in the contract that if any incident happens during the promotion, then the actor should get compensation for it.
There is also a termination clause in the contract. It tells that if the production house wants to change the actor, what will be the reasons and notice period. Every production house has a legal team that draws up agreements, and these keep changing from time to time.
If there is an intimate scene during the shooting, then consent is first taken from the actor or actress. There is a clause in the contract that if an intimate scene comes suddenly, the actor will be informed first. After this the actor or actress has the right to refuse to do the scene. The production house cannot put pressure on such scenes. This is not only wrong, but it is also a legal offence.
There are many different methods of payment for actors
There are many different methods of payment for actors in the film industry, which are decided according to their work. A common method is installment payment, in which the entire amount is not received at once. Some money is received when the shooting starts, then when the shooting ends and when the film is promoted, the rest of the money is received. If there is a delay in payment, actors can claim penalty.
Some production houses also offer profit sharing to actors, which includes a certain percentage of the profit. This is decided jointly by the actors and the production house.
Most of the disputes are over working hours, working conditions and termination.
Celebrity lawyer Suvigya Vidyarthi said – The most important things in the actors’ contracts are working hours, salary, termination, work conditions and indemnity. Most disputes are over working hours, working conditions and termination.
The process of making a contract is that first the production house sends a draft agreement, which contains their terms. Then the actor’s legal team reads it and adds its terms and together they sign the agreement. Sometimes the channel has some terms which are unlikely to be changed, but which the actors have to sign to work in the industry.
Production houses often do not follow the contract terms. There are frequent delays in payments, defaults in GST payments, working hours are very long, and actors are terminated without notice.
New actors face problems due to contracts
Many times small or new actors have to face problems due to contracts. Once a production house had demanded Rs 72 crore from the lead actor of a TV show, whereas the salary of that actor was less than one lakh.
Rules of contracts are not followed
The most surprising thing is that it is the lawyers of the production house who make the most one-sided contracts. If the terms of the contracts are not followed, the parties can seek arbitration or file a civil case. In some cases FIR may also be lodged. Once I had complained about a case to the Human Rights Commission, which led to improvements on the sets of the production house and brought relief to the actors.
Actors should take help from CINTAA (Cine and TV Artists Association) to protect their rights.
This clause is included in the contracts of these Bollywood actors.
- It is clearly written in Akshay Kumar’s contract that he will not work for more than 8 hours. They need every Sunday off. So that we can spend time with family.
- There is a strict clause in Salman Khan’s contract that he will not do intimate scenes with any actress.
- While signing the film, Priyanka Chopra puts a condition that she will not do nude scenes in the films.
- While signing a film, Kareena Kapoor Khan makes it written in the contract that she will not do bedroom or kissing scenes.
- It is written in Sonakshi Sinha’s contract that she will not do lip-lock scenes in films. He feels uncomfortable doing such scenes.
- Shahrukh Khan has a strange clause written in his contract. The clause is that no film maker will make him do horse riding.
- Aamir Khan has a clause of no low angle shot in his contract. He believes that with such shots facial features are not visible on the camera.
- It is written in a clause in Hrithik Roshan’s contract that he will take his personal chef with him during the shooting.
- Raveena Tandon had adopted a no kissing policy in her film career. It is written in a clause of her contract that she will never do kissing scenes.
Madhuri Dixit had to sign ‘no pregnancy’ clause before marriage
During the shooting of the film ‘Khalnayak’, Subhash Ghai felt that if Madhuri got married or became pregnant in the middle of his film, then she would leave his film midway. According to media reports, keeping this in mind, Subhash Ghai had made Madhuri sign the ‘no pregnancy’ clause. According to this, if Madhuri becomes pregnant during the shooting of the film, she will have to pay a heavy fine.
When Madhur Bhandarkar came to know about Aishwarya’s pregnancy, he fired her from the film.
Madhur Bhandarkar had signed Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for the film ‘Heroine’. When Madhur came to know about Aish’s pregnancy, he became very angry and showed Aishwarya the way out of the film. Madhur said that the actress had to smoke in the film. But smoking is not good for a pregnant woman. It was also possible that Ash would have refused to smoke on camera. There were many things in the film which could harm a pregnant woman.
The makers of the film waited till Kareena’s delivery
Kareena became pregnant before the shooting of the film ‘Veere Di Wedding’. Kareena Kapoor was even ready to leave the film. She had also told the producers of the film to sign some other heroine in her place. However, the makers decided that they will wait for Kareena’s delivery.
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