Over 30 models accuse TFM talent agency of non-payment of dues racking up to almost Rs 1 crore. Here’s the whole story

The Indian movie and modelling business has fairly a popularity, each good and unhealthy, with folks sharing experiences of lifelong friendships and burnt bridges that made, or ended their careers. However, over the previous few months, over thirty fashions who labored with Mumbai-based expertise company TFM/360 India, owned by designer Ashish N Soni, have alleged that the corporate owes them lakhs of rupees (greater than Rs 70 lakhs) in unpaid dues for exhibits, occasions and shoots that in some instances befell years in the past and that the corporate has no intention to pay.

The incident was first dropped at mild when a number of fashions took to their social media handles and shared their experiences working with TFM, sharing how they hadn’t been paid for months on finish, some have even claimed they have been threatened with ‘gundas’ by higher administration once they mentioned they’d make the difficulty public. The incident was picked up by self-appointed Instagram-based style business watchdog, Diet Sabya, which shared a put up which revealed one other facet of the glamourous modelling business. The put up elaborated how TFM had disadvantaged its expertise of their rightful fee since 2018, typically discrediting the mannequin by claiming breach of contract, misbehaviour as a explanation for non-payment.  

The put up learn, “Over the last couple of months, we’ve gone back-and-forth between 20+ creatives (models, make-up artists etc) and their talent agency, TFM. Mumbai-based agency, TFM allegedly owes them lakhs of rupees in unpaid dues. Multiple rounds of clarifications later the fact remains unchanged: Money is still owed! The bitter industry truth is that modelling/talent agencies are notorious for withholding money and TFM has been pulling this stunt since 2018 (shocking!). The models have finally had it and are no longer willing to wait for their own money. TFM agents did give us multiple reasons/explanations for the delay citing Covid economy, breach of contract, models misbehaving etc etc. Most of these explanations seem to be just excuses to buy time. Moral of the story? It’s a messy, and incredibly heartbreaking situation for these creatives, who are dependent on agencies for their livelihood. Discuss!!” 

ALSO READ | Dark and Lovely: Padma Lakshmi posts about colourism, Diet Sabya calls for ban on Fair and Lovely

Since then, a number of fashions got here ahead with related tales, and Diet Sabya has additionally shared movies of fashions which have labored with TFM and are nonetheless awaiting fee. While Diet Sabya has all the time been a web page that calls out copycats and ‘gandi’ copies, over the previous few months the web page has racked up a brand new popularity for calling out corporations, manufacturers and employers for the mistreatment of workers, as effectively different social points like colourism. Several fashions, of their testimonies, shared that on condition that that they had their very own payments and weren’t getting paid, they needed to finish their contract with the company, which states that they can’t work with one other company in the course of the three months after their contract with TFM is terminated, nonetheless, the contract permits them to work independently.

Diet Sabya, fashions get blocked by Ashish Soni, TFM on Instagram

In an interview with MidDay, mannequin Arlette Grao, who was at TFM from 2016 to 2018, claimed that the corporate owes over Rs 70 lakh to the fashions, and that she didn’t obtain any fee for all of the assignments she did throughout her time there, which racks as much as Rs eight lakhs. “I have bank statements to support this.” She went on so as to add that she ended up quitting the company and after the contractual cooling-off interval (three months) was full, she started to freelance, “Once I started freelancing, I realised there are multiple models whose payments are stuck with the company.” Arlette talked about that make-up artist Donald Simrock who labored for Lakme Fashion Week two years in the past is ready on a fee, which in line with Diet Sabya’s put up comes as much as Rs 9 lakhs. The mannequin additionally added that in her case TFM cited breach of contract as the explanation for non-payment of dues, “When I haven’t breached any clause. They are putting similar false allegations on my other colleagues.”

Arlette plans on submitting a authorized case towards the company, along with the 2 she has already despatched to the company since November 2018, including that though she final communicated with Ashish Soni on September 17 and he didn’t reply, because the matter has been picked up by Diet Sabya, the Instagram web page, in addition to the fashions have been blocked by the company’s web page. 

Another mannequin, Shivani Bafna, who additionally labored with TFM, took to her YouTube channel and shared her expertise working with TFM. She spoke of her time on the company in 2018, and having to attend on funds for months in 2018, she added that she clarified along with her supervisor in addition to one of many ‘owners’ Rishy Bartariya, that she wanted to be paid. After months of well mannered following up and never getting something besides excuses, Shivani acquired exasperated and determined to share her expertise with different fashions by way of a gaggle textual content on WhatsApp. This nonetheless, didn’t sit effectively with Rishu, who allegedly threatened Shivani saying that if she places something on social media, or speaks up she would ship ‘gundas’ after her. They even discredited every part Shivani mentioned by saying she had breached her contract which is why she wasn’t paid. However, after submitting a lawsuit, and much more persistence, Shivani acquired her fee of Rs 5 lakhs.

Ashish Soni and TFM’s facet of the story

There are a number of such situations, and lots of fashions have already filed police complaints and despatched authorized notices to the company, or are planning to. A written assertion mailed to LiveWire by TFM acknowledged, “Ashish Soni, on behalf of TFM/360 India, reassures everyone that TFM/360 India shall clear its dues as soon as possible as has also been done in the past.”

MidDay reached out to Soni, who mentioned that the agency has been operating in losses because it was arrange 5 years in the past, on account of which the international companion, who was the father or mother firm, determined to drag out leaving Soni, a 40% investor in TFM, struggling to maintain the corporate afloat. He added, “They wanted to shut it down. I took on their debt and ensured that the models’ income stays afloat. It was a liability and I have been running it for two years. Company records that are public will tell you that I haven’t drawn a single salary from the company. I hope to find an investor with deeper pockets for this agency. Till March, we had a regular cash flow but the business has been affected due to COVID. People are not in a position to pay up. To malign someone(for that), is out of line. I am willing to open this up for audit and if to prove my integrity, if I have to take a loan, I will do so.”

According to the written assertion by TFM to Livewire, TFM/360 India has paid Rs 2.65 crore to a number of fashions in funds. The assertion added that when the international companion pulled out TFM tried to recuperate as a lot because it may, however “due to the fact that TFM/360 India was owed a great deal of money and such money was not recovered within a considerable amount of time, the financial and economic health of the company worsened.” The assertion additionally added that TFM’s administration was by no means in Ashish Soni’s purview and that there have been different folks operating the present, and in some situations shoppers additionally didn’t pay the corporate on time. The assertion additionally went on to say that now Soni is “taking steps to mitigate the damage caused by earlier mismanagement”.

Follow extra tales on Facebook and Twitter