Casting directors are one of the most unsung heroes of the cinema industry. Citing the famous director John Frankenheimer, "casting is 65% of directing". It is considered that when the casting of a film is done right, half the job is done. Casting is a very crucial process in making a film and hence it has all the power to uplift the film or make it hit the rock bottom.
The role of the casting director in Bollywood is widely acknowledged and is yet to emerge in South Indian cinema, especially in Tamil. In order to help this situation, a union for casting directors was proposed yesterday (27 May).
More than 50 casting directors gathered at Chennai and held a discussion regarding their responsibilities. The official launch of the Casting director's union will be held soon. The discussion incorporated things like title credits, transparency of the artists' salary and the recognition for their job. The casting directors' body of work has never been acknowledged and hence the discussion was held to insist that their names should appear in the credits roll.
Following that, the salary of these casting directors are based only on certain percentage of the actors' salary. But since the remittance of the artists is kept concealed, the casting directors are paid lesser than their actual pay. In order to rectify the situation, the gathered casting directors put forward that the artists' salaries are to be made transparent.
Furthermore, the team also discussed about the logo of their union. Manoj Krishna, who has had 25 years of experience in casting artists will be heading the same. A formal launch of the casting directors union shall be expected soon.
