S. Premkumar is relaxed these days. “After returning from work around 4 a.m., I sleep peacefully with the assurance that the bills I’ve stuck will not be peeled off.” He’s into sticking movie posters on a few stretches of Avinashi Road, Trichy Road, R.S. Puram and Town Hall.
He gets to work only twice a week – on Wednesdays and Thursdays – ahead of Friday and the weekend to draw moviegoers to cinemas.
His relaxation comes from the fact that there is no competition from political parties, which have kept off walls due to the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct.
If the political parties are pasting bills or writing graffiti, then it is always a problem as movie posters are the first casualty, Mr. Premkumar says and adds that the morning after sticking bills, the posters are just pealed off or covered with political posters.
This always lands in trouble the people in the business because the distributors go check the bills before paying them.
And when they don’t find the bills, the workers land in trouble, rues M. Manohar, another worker who sticks bills for livelihood.
In the absence of competition, the persons sticking movie posters are also finding new grounds like the pillars of the under-construction flyover in Gandhipuram.
Ahead of the release of movies for the Tamil new year in April, they made full use of the space and also stuck bills in places vacated by political parties.
But the workers who stick bills cannot do so at all places. There are restrictions which, if they violate, will land the distributors in trouble, says A.N. Chandrasekaran, a distributor. Sticking bills on walls of government establishments, schools, hospitals and temples are no-no and those in the trade know it.
But then, there are other challenges they face like the gradual reduction in number of bills.
It used to be in hundreds until a few years ago but now has come down, the workers say. They get Rs. 5 for every poster they paste and take home between Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 2,000 a week.
