Gourmet food for directors, Rs 150 cap on meals for editors: Top Bollywood editors speak of 'frightening inequality'

Away from the spotlight hourslong footage is scrutinised pieced together and woven into a taut narrative that the audiences finally witness on screen Editing is an art thatrsquos crucial but unfortunately invisible Sadly Bollywoodrsquos leading editors too are being invisibilised by being subjected to unfair working conditionsLast November midday reported that a group of editors met the Association of Film and Video Editors AFVE and the Federation of Western India Cine Employees FWICE to pursue their demand for fair working practices Change begins with minor edits Nov 8 Now it appears that their woes have only worsened with production houses discriminating against them with something as basic as mealsShweta Venkat and Antara Lahirirsquos upcoming projects include Junaid Khanrsquos Maharaj and Ananya Pandayrsquos Call Me Bae respectivelyAntara Lahiri who has edited Ananya Pandayrsquos next Call Me Bae says until recently many editing teams werenrsquot even provided food or meal reimbursements ldquoItrsquos sad but meal expenses have to be discussed during negotiations If you donrsquot productions assume you will never be eating in the course of the projectrdquo she says drylyShe highlights the recent development of caps on food reimbursement and how they are shockingly low for editors while production houses spend lavishly on meals for actors filmmakers and the onset teams Lahiri rues ldquoThere is a bizarre inequity in the way caps are imposed A head of department the editor can order a meal worth say R700 But the associate and assistant editorrsquos meal cap is R400500 Why there is a hierarchy in food is beyond me In contrast sometimes Irsquove heard directors and production teams brag about the gourmet food that was served on set But these same teams expect us to survive on cheap greasy dabba Eyebrows are raised if you or your team wants to eat healthy Is it only an actorrsquos prerogative to stay fitrdquoShweta Venkat and Antara LahiriThatrsquos not all She has also experienced studios serving contaminated food to editors ldquoOnce I saw worms in the rice and this was a tiffin service ordered by a wellknown production houserdquo she recallsTheres more to it as Lahiri recollects this one time she had a rat run over her foot in the cafeteria of a high profile production Therersquos even been a situation where Irsquove been editing a really well known project and you couldnrsquot go and sit in the open air cafeteria once it was dark outside Because yoursquod see a morbid sort of rat dinner Party playing out on the tables there When it comes to basics like food there seems to be an elitism around all things related to shoot and a blatant disregard for the edit where films and shows actually get maderdquo she saysSenior editor Deepa Bhatia credited with movies like Taare Zameen Par 2007 and Kedarnath 2018 says earlier food costs would be borne by the producers ldquoThis is a relatively new trendrdquo she notesBhatia adds ldquoThe food costs of assistant editors seem to pinch the producers But entourage costs of stars directors and other abovetheline crew is affordable The inequality is frighteningrdquo An editor on the condition of anonymity tells us that on a recent project two members had a perday food limit of as less as R150 He rues that one can probably get only an omelette at that price Another editor working on a series shares that his team was given two optionsmdashorder food worth R150 or have the production house arrange lunch box for them ldquoMy team chose the second option A week later we all had food poisoningrdquo he recallsThe horror stories donrsquot end Another insider notes that some production houses determine the food budget according to the filmrsquos scale ldquoSo the team of a spectacle project was provided better quality food than that of a smallbudget filmrdquo says the sourceShweta Venkat who worked as the editor on the upcoming Maharaj and last yearrsquos Thank You For Coming says the discrimination in meals is part of a bigger disparity ldquoOur community is severely underpaid Movie budgets have increased actors and technicians may be charging more but when it comes to postproduction and editing wersquore still working on older rates If you have X crore as your budget given the kind of work an assistant editor puts in their pay has to be sizablerdquo Venkat adds that itrsquos impossible for an assistant editor to make a living in Mumbai at the current pay scaleIf I were an assistant coming to Mumbai and I work with an HOD Head of department my fee wouldnt be more than Rs 50000 that too for an experienced assistant editor If you get that per month its a great deal But conveyance is not included in it then you have to pay your rent send money to your family and bear your own expenses They dont get conveyance and then some of these production houses not all have these ridiculous food caps and editors are made to stay back overnight Its a very messy situation It has been this way for some time But now its becoming worse Whoever comes and asks me for work I keep telling them Editing as a profession is not what you can solely depend on as your primary source of income Its impossible to sustain says VenkatAs they tackle restrictive food budgets low pay and lack of conveyance allowance most editors feel that producers almost donrsquot care about treating them with dignity Any production manager can arrange a good tiffin dabba delivery that will be within budget It is about treating your crew with dignity and making them feel like you care for them as a part of your team Editing happens behind the scenes Its not glamorous In fact the editing room is where mistakes must be corrected stories rewritten actors performances improved through judicious combination of shots scenes made to look better by applying effects its the hard part of filmmaking that nobody really wants to reveal to the public Somehow we stay hidden and so do our problems says a senior editor credited with several acclaimed films on the condition of anonymityBhatia and Venkat call for urgent affirmative action to address the discrimination ldquoIn the last fourfive years some of us have come together to figure out how these issues can be addressed Wersquove begun working with AFVE and wersquore trying to mobilise peoplerdquo says Venkat Lahiri however says that many in the community donrsquot speak up ldquoI get so many responses everytime I post this sort of message to my social media For example someone was told their Rs 350 food bill wouldnrsquot be cleared but the same production would be happy to pay upwards of Rs 500 for a starrsquos coffee or sandwich Sadly very few people speak up Therersquos a fear of being blacklisted Every time we try to take a step forward with the union we rarely end up making progress because very few editors are willing to make a formal complaintrdquo