Actors agree to cut in fee

KOCHI: Malayalam film actors affiliated to the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) earning Rs.3 lakh and above for a movie will reduce their fee by 25 per cent from now. The association representatives, headed by its president Innocent, made this commitment during the talks held with representatives of the Film Producers Association here on Saturday.

Elaborating on the decisions taken at the meeting, Sabu Cherian, president of the producers association, said that shooting of movies would begin at 7 a.m.

�Producers will have the right not to cooperate with artistes who fail to turn up at locations at this time. We feel that the schedule of a movie can be reduced by five days if artistes stick to this time schedule, he said. Mr. Cherian said that producers would cut the expenses incurred by assistants of artistes from the latters fee.

Representatives of artistes and producers will sign an agreement to abide by these decisions. The agreement will be placed before the government-level talks scheduled on May 12.