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Mumbai, Apr 8: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has started the process of transferring funds into the accounts of daily wage workers of the film industry, the Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees (FWICE) said on Wednesday.

The actor had recently pledged to financially support 25,000 daily wage workers who have been badly hit by the 21-day lockdown to contain the coronavirus spread in the country.

According to B N Tiwari, FWICE, President, Salman has made an initial payment of Rs 3,000 each to the daily wage workers of the film industry, starting Tuesday.

"We had given him the final list of 23,000 workers so far, who were in dire need of financial help. He is going to transfer money in installments as he doesn't want people to misuse it. He has transferred about Rs 3,000 to every worker yesterday and he will transfer money again after some time. We are thankful to him for helping our workers," Tiwari told PTI.

A source close to Salman said the superstar will continue to support the workers until the situation improves in the country.

"We have started the process from Tuesday. We will be giving sufficient money to workers monthly, we will also give money next month and if the situation is still the same, we will continue to financially help the workers till it doesn't return to normalcy," the source said.

FWICE said Yash Raj Films have also provided a financial help of Rs 5,000 to around 3,000 workers.

"Besides Salman, a lot of people from Bollywood have come forward to help the workers, including Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty, who have given Rs 51 lakh each. Boney Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor too have given money and there are few more who have offered financial assistance to the federation. We also received Rs 1.5 crore from the Producers Guild of India on Tuesday.

"The federation has received a total amount of Rs 3 crore from film industry people. We are yet to receive money from Netflix, which they had announced for daily wage earners and also from Amitabh Bachchan, who is going to provide ration to one lakh workers. He is going to provide coupons which we should receive in a day or two," Tiwari said.

He further said Bachchan's ration coupon for workers will also be given to other associations across the country, such as in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Karnataka.

Tiwari said FWICE is in the process of making another list of needy workers and then they will begin the process of transferring money.

"The Rs 3 crore that the federation has received will be distributed among our five lakh workers in Maharashtra. We will start sending money from April 14 in phases. Those who haven't received any financial aid will be helped first. We are in the process of making a list of such workers for the same," Tiwari said.

"FWICE has also begun distributing ration to workers in suburban Andheri and Jogeshwari. So far we have distributed 5,000 packets of ration and we will give more, he added.

Mumbai, Jul 22: Actor Sonu Sood on Wednesday launched an app to offer support to workers in finding right job opportunities in various sectors across the country.

Sood, who catapulted to the national spotlight for his work in helping migrants reach their homes amid the Covid-19 pandemic, has come out with a free of cost online platform called 'Pravasi Rojgar', which will provide all the necessary information and right linkages to find jobs.

The 47-year-old actor said while arranging travel for the migrants, their conversations would often revolve around how they were looking for the right work opportunity amid the pandemic.

"Lot of thinking, planning and preparation have gone into designing this initiative over the last few months, in order to ensure that it is holistic and builds on the work already being done in the country.

"Extensive consultations have been held with top organisations that're involved at the grassroots level in skilling and placing the youth below the poverty line, NGOs, philanthropic organisations, government functionaries, strategy consultants, technology start ups and above all the returned migrants whom I have helped," Sood said in a statement.

The initiative will be supported by community outreach in the villages to find the right employment opportunities for migrant workers in different parts of the country.

According to the release, the online platform has over 500 reputed companies related to construction, apparel, healthcare, engineering, BPOs, security, automobile, e-commerce and logistics sectors, offering job opportunities.

'Pravasi Rojgar' will also be offering specific job training programmes like spoken English.

A 24x7 helpline have been set up in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Thiruvananthapuram. 

New Delhi, Jun 9: Multiplex operator PVR on Monday said it has cut salary across various levels, laid off employees and deferred increments during the lockdown to mitigate adverse impact of COVID-19 on the business.

The company said at present it is not generating any revenue from exhibition business and related activities as cinemas across the country are shut following the directions from the regulatory authorities.

According to the company, closure of screens during the lockdown will have a significant negative impact on profitability and liquidity.

PVR has taken measures to reduce its personnel cost, including salary cuts across various levels in the organisation during the lockdown along with "reduction in headcount by way of layoffs/retrenchment" to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the business.

Moreover, the board of the company, in its meeting held on Monday has also approved plan to raise Rs 300 crore through rights issue.

"Since Cinema Exhibition is the only business segment, company is currently not generating any revenue from admissions, food and beverage sales or other revenue and cash flow from operations," said PVR in an update.

Beginning from March 11, PVR started closing its screens in accordance with the order passed by various regulatory authorities and within a few days most of our cinemas across the country were shut down, it added.

The company will continue to incur committed cash outflows, including employee salary pay-outs, other overheads as well as payments for older working capital.

"This has and will have a significant negative impact on profitability and liquidity during lockdown and even thereafter till business comes to normalcy," it added.

Further, once the cinemas are re-opened, we may not be able to run our cinemas at normal capacity utilisation levels on account of social distancing measures that cinemas may be required to follow as well as health concerns that the patrons may have, the multiplex operator said.

"On account of this, our revenue and cash flow generation may be impeded even once we are allowed to restart operations," it added.

The company has also deferred decision on on increments to reduce its cost, it added.

PVR has also written to developers for waiving rental and CAM (Common Area Maintenance) charges for the lockdown period.

It is in discussion with developers for reducing rentals post re-opening and has invoked force majeure clause in its agreements with them.

Besides, the company has raised additional borrowings from existing bankers to shore up liquidity.

"As of March 31, 2020 the company had cash and bank balance of Rs 316 crore. As on June 7, 2020 cash and bank balance is Rs 227 crore (including undrawn bank lines)," it added.

Over reopening of theatres, PVR said that the government has come out with a phase-wise schedule.

In these guidelines cinema halls have been kept in the third phase of re-opening, where dates will be decided based on assessment of the situation.

"We are in continuous engagement with all regulatory authorities and hope to receive the necessary permissions for restarting opening in the near future," it added.

Currently PVR operates 845 screens in 176 properties in 71 cities.