In June 1997, some members of the FEFSI resorted to a flash strike during the shooting of the film Raman Abdullah, directed by Balu Mahendra, protesting against the director engaging "outsiders". This led into a major crisis when FEFSI launched an indefinite strike, affecting other film units as well.[2] The state government intervened and FEFSI called off the strike after a week. However, the producers hardened their stand and insisted that they would not engage any technician or worker associated with FEFSI. They complained that the rising wages of technical staff and artistes were contributing towards the box office run of Tamil films in 1997.[3] They demanded that workers and technicians form new organisations exclusively for the production of Tamil films, on the lines of organisations in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The issue escalated when the organisation's leader Vijayan declined to budge from his demands and was unable to gather support from a series of prominent actors and film director Bharathiraja.[4] Vijayan also became the key person for the strike which led to suicide of some members and some lost their assets due to this strike.