FWICE chief advisor Ashoke Pandit hit back at filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma after he called the federation’s non-cooperation directive against Ranveer Singh a “joke” and “muscle flexing” by an outdated union. Pandit alleged Varma has owed over ₹1 crore to technicians since 2017.
The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) has accused filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma of non-payment of outstanding dues totaling over ₹1 crore. The film body’s allegations come just days after Varma publicly criticised the federation's controversial "Non-Cooperation Directive" previously leveled against actor Ranveer Singh.
The association had initially issued the non-cooperation order against Singh on May 25, following the actor's abrupt exit from Farhan Akhtar's highly anticipated, Don 3. In response, Singh served the federation with a formal legal notice, leading to a dramatic de-escalation on Wednesday when the FWICE officially withdrew the disciplinary order with immediate effect.
On May 29, Varma took to X with a lengthy and strongly worded message. "Ban 'FWICE' and not @RanveerOfficial," the filmmaker tweeted, stating that the "so called 'ban' or non-cooperation in the style of Gandhiji" will eventually become a "big fat joke" for the association.
In response to this tweet, Chief Advisor of FWICE and the President of Indian Film and Television Directors' Association (IFTDA), Ashoke Pandit, said that Varma's payment of over ₹1 crore to workers has been pending since 2017. According to Pandit, the non-payment dispute stems from the filmmaker's 2018 Telugu action-thriller Officer, which was headlined by superstar Akkineni Nagarjuna.
"FWICE is not a bully; it’s a serious federation. Ram Gopal Varma used abusive language about us. We would like to tell the world today: RGV owes more than a crore to technicians. The case has been going on since 2017," Pandit said during a press conference on Wednesday.
"We take strong objection to the language used against the Federation. Instead of abusing the organisation, he should be apologising to the Federation and settling these long-pending dues," he added.
Pandit said the filmmaker had written to the FWICE in 2019, stating that his production house be given a "final deadline" of March 4 of that year for payment of dues, the failure of which would mean the company would be "liable to any kind of sanction by the federation."
“That was 2019. This is 2026. Not a single penny has come to us till this date," Pandit said.
In his tweet, Varma had alleged that the association's move against Singh wasn't for worker protection but a "pure performative muscle flexing, by an extremely outdated union system, desperately trying to hold on to their grip."