A standoff between film directors, many of them close to the ruling Trinamool Congress, and technicians owing allegiance to Trinamool leader Swarup Biswas continued to stall shooting at the Tollygunge studios on Monday.

The association of technicians stuck to conditions they had set for shooting to resume. The directors' guild also dug their heels and persisted with a cease-work call and appealed for arbitration by a "neutral" third party.

At the root of the impasse is the debate over whether a union of cinema technicians and workers has the authority to impose an embargo on a filmmaker.

Shooting of films, television serials and OTT content has now been crippled for three days.

"They have a symbiotic relationship, one section cannot function without the other. They complement each other. I am quite sure they will sort this out and find an amicable resolution," chief minister Mamata Banerjee said in response to a question on Monday.

The deadlock began when technicians did not turn up on the floor on the first day of the shoot of an unnamed film on Saturday because their association had debarred the director, Rahool Mukherjee.

The Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India (FCTWEI) had barred Mukherjee from making films for three months for allegedly violating norms by visiting Bangladesh to shoot an OTT film without intimation to the federation and taking the help of technicians in Dhaka.

The federation represents 26 associations or guilds — made up of different persons who are part of a shoot, from directors to people in charge of lights.

The Directors' Association of Eastern India, which is also part of the federation, revoked the bar on Mukherjee. The technicians, however, refused to budge and did not turn up for the Saturday shooting schedule of the unnamed film, produced by SVF and starring Prosenjit Chatterjee and Anirban Bhattacharya.

The move vertically split the television and film industry into two camps.

A large section of producers, directors and actors has rallied behind Mukherjee. The directors' guild decided to go on an indefinite cease-work till the "problem is addressed in an amicable manner”. The Welfare Association of Television Producers has sided with the directors.

Several directors met at Prosenjit's Ballygunge home on Monday afternoon and then at Tollygunge late at night. The most common complaint that emerged was the need for laws that are in keeping with the changing times and framed by a neutral third party, not a federation which was likened to a "trade union".

"This is not a clash between directors and technicians. We are like family. But we need to review if what we follow can be called laws," actor-filmmaker Kaushik Ganguly told a news conference late on Monday.

His colleague, filmmaker Indranil Roychowdhury, said the "regulatory shackles" imposed by the federation were stifling. "Can the federation be a regulatory body? Television, OTT or films, everybody is troubled. We need a re-evaluation by a neutral third party acceptable to both sides. The third party may be one or more persons but must have a realistic knowledge of cinema and know the nuances of law," he said.

Actor-director Anirban Bhattacharya said: "We are going to continue with the cease-work call. At the same time, we are keeping the doors for discussion open."

Prosenjit urged the need to change with the times. "Some rules need to be changed with the passage of time and progress of technology. We are part of the same family and everyone deserves equal respect."

Some of the foremost film-makers of Bengal — Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Arindam Sil, Shiboprosad Mukherjee, Sudeshna Roy, Kaushik Ganguly, Goutam Ghose and Raj Chakraborty, for example — were part of a meeting at Prosenjit's Ballygunge bungalow on Monday afternoon.

The technicians also held a meeting in Tollygunge.

But there was no end to the impasse.

The technicians pointed to an earlier decision — taken by the federation and agreed upon by all the stakeholders — to have Mukherjee as the creative producer of the upcoming film and cinematographer Soumik Haldar as its director.

Swarup Biswas, president of the federation and brother of minister Aroop Biswas, said there would be no problem in shooting if that decision was adhered to. "Bumba-da (Prosenjit) suggested having Mukherjee as a creative producer. Bumba-da is like our guardian. The proposal was forwarded to the executive committee of the federation. Despite many reservations, the committee allowed Mukherjee to be on the set as creative producer. But then the call list showed Mukherjee's name as director," said Biswas.

Asked about the directors' guild withdrawing the bar on Mukherjee, Biswas told Metro: "The decision (to impose the three-month bar) was endorsed at the annual general meeting of the federation. The directors' guild cannot revoke it unilaterally."