Over 2,000 Technicolor India artists left jobless as firm stops operations, offers no clarity on pay

Questions sent to Biren Ghose, Managing Director Asia-Pacific Technicolor Group remained unanswered till the time of publishing this article.

"I reached the office at around 9 AM and it was business as usual until one of my colleagues from Mumbai called me to check on the news of Technicolor shutting down. While I read the news, there was no mention of India operations and expected no impact. Then suddenly, the management came and told us to take our belongings and leave the office saying that even they had no idea what was happening. People waited in the office to get more clarity but there is none even now," a Technicolor employee from the Bengaluru office told Moneycontrol on condition of anonymity.

Uncertainty looms

Shocked and disgruntled, the employees are desperately seeking answers from the company.

"We don't know if we are fired or not. We have been told to stop working. Some of us were told to work from home but we couldn't because the system wasn't getting connected to servers as the main office wasn't working. On Monday, when we had reached office the air conditioning had stopped working as the company did not pay the power bill. We have heard that the company has not paid power bills and rent for the last four months," the employee cited above said.

The employee added that unlike the US team which has all the clarity regarding till when they have to work, India team is in limbo.

Another employee said that before February 24, there was no prior intimation about the company's operation shutting down or around layoffs.

"No mail was sent on shutting down. We got to know about this when we came to the office. They should have at least given the employees a month's notice. I have to pay EMI (easy monthly installments). Many of us have children. We won't get a job immediately," the person said.

A third employee said, "The company has told us that they will give us moral support. I can't tell my bank that instead of paying EMI I will give moral support. We need our salaries. We won't get our February salary. We are eligible for health insurance until June and July and beyond that we won't have that too. I am worried and filled with doubts. The first thought running through my mind is to request my bank to give me some relief for six months on EMI."

One employee said that the news is so upsetting that he feels stuck and is unsure what his next steps will be. Another employee said that he is not in the state of mind to discuss the issue.

Unpaid salaries

One employee who runs a YouTube channel named Animator's Review expressed his anguish.

"On Monday morning at around 10:30 an executive producer came to our studio and told us to not speculate anything and that there is a meeting with the top management. They told us to expect nothing good and only bad or ugly. We were thrown out of the job. Finding another job is not easy in this field as there are not many vacancies in animation. Some of the employees are looking for jobs in call centres because they are so frustrated."
The Youtuber pointed out that last year in November when more than 300 employees were fired, the laid off employees had received three months compensation.

"I was proud of Biren Ghose. But his communication during the townhall seems like nothing major has happened. He told us that he tried hard to get funds and that he was not aware of this situation. He has been in touch with the global team and he was not aware about this. As a head of the studio how was he not aware that the situation had gotten worse. Ghose could have at least convinced the global team to pay the India employees 60-70 percent salary for this month to give some assurance to employees. At least release this month's salary," the person said.

So far, the only communication with the employees has been through a virtual town hall meeting on February 26 which was addressed by Ghose.

Employees said there was no empathy in Ghose's address.

No empathy

"We received Caroline Parot's (Technicolor, Group Chief Executive Officer) and we have been impacted the same as everyone on this call. While we have been evaluating options and working with the management day and night looking at different ways to move forward. Currently, no other business opportunity to help us has materialised," Ghose said during the virtual meeting.

He added, "The office premises are inoperative due to lack of staff. We have made a request for everyone to work from home while we are discussing with the landlord. We acknowledge that Technicolor India will be unable to pay salaries further based on the fact that we have not received remittance which usually comes one or two days before the salary payment. Therefore, on the immediate salary of February 2025 we have not received funds despite all requests to the corporate team hence we will not be able to pay salaries for this month."

This was a one-way communication and people were asked to stay on mute and if anyone tried talking they were put on mute, an employee said.

"The town hall meeting also happened after employees pressed for answers. The town hall meeting was also cancelled twice. It is such a big company so we were expecting some communication," another employee added.

Ghose during his address also emphasized that employees should not take any drastic measures as that could affect investor relations while the company is still trying to get partners on board.

Employees have launched a petition demanding justice for the unpaid and uninformed dismissals. The petition so far has been signed by 1,468 employees.

AVGC in trouble

While Ghose apologised to the Technicolor India employees during his virtual address and even suggested an in-person meeting with all, employees noted that his focus was more on the GAFX (Gaming, Animation, Visual Effects Conference).

The sixth edition of GAFX commenced on February 27 which talked about the growth in India's AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming and comics) sector. It was attended by Karnataka IT-BT Minister Priyank Kharge who during the conference said that in animation and visual effects, Indian artists are instrumental in delivering cutting-edge visuals for domestic and international productions. "Our contributions have garnered global acclaim, positioning India as a hub of high-quality animation and VFX services," he added.

While the conference kicked off smoothly on-ground, GAFX's YouTube livestream was filled with comments from Technicolor employees asking for clarity about their fate. Some even questioned why the Technicolor trouble was not being addressed in the conference.

A few Technicolor employees also noted that the animation and visual effects industry is not faring well in India.

In 2023, while demand in the animation segment shrunk, the overall VFX segment grew despite a global slowdown in demand, according to an EY 2024 report.

Indian animation industry's revenue fell to 3,600 crore in 2023 from 3,800 crore from the previous year. VFX industry's revenue grew to Rs 5,400 crore from Rs 5,000 crore in 2022, the report added.