Ganesh Acharya denies underpayment claims

Ganesh Acharya vehemently denies claims of not implementing increased wage fixed for dancers by Cine Dancer's Association (CDA).

Mumbai: Bollywood choreographer Ganesh Acharya has denied accusation levelled against him by members of Cine Dancer's Association (CDA) that he did not pay dancers according to the standard rate fixed by the body.

"We have heard the news that I don't give money to dancers and there are allegations against me that I make under-payments to dancers. Today, we have called out dancers from the film industry and media is free to ask them whether I do any kind of fraud when it comes to payment of wages," Acharya told the media at a press conference he hosted to present his side of the story.

Earlier, a senior CDA member said, while interacting with the media that their last wage increment happened in June 2014 during the shooting of the Salman Khan starrer Kick. While all leading choreographers agreed to hike payment to Rs 4,500, Ganesh, according to them was the only exception who was not willing to pay according to the new standard rate.

Contrary to an earlier report, Acharya said he has not received any letter from Indian Film and Television Directors Association (IFTDA) regarding the issue.

"Some dance coordinators threaten choreographers that we should only work with them, and when I became general secretary (of the association), we had passed a resolution that we will not work with those dance coordinators because it is our call with whom we want to work. Choreographers such as Remo D'Souza, Ceaser, Bosco, Vaibhavi Merchant, Farah Khan and Geeta Kapoor signed on the resolution. If they want to sort this matters legally, then we are ready to do that, but we are not going to listen to them if they continue harassing us like this," said Ganesh Acharya on payment controversy.

Ganesh Acharya also slammed the media saying that they have maligned his image without knowing his side of story.