KUALA LUMPUR: Popular director and producer Shahrulezad Mohameddin has called on management companies and artiste managers to be more professional in their dealings.
Shahrulezad said he had experienced unpleasant situations that were becoming the norm as time went by which would make it a bane for the local film industry.
"This is a problem faced by the industry today. To the management companies and artiste managers out there, be careful and please be more professional.
"There are production companies and producers, as well as TV stations, that have started to blacklist management companies as they do not want to deal with them anymore," he said in a Harian Metro report yesterday.
Shahrulezad added: "This is based on my own experiences and not all artiste managers are behaving with a negative attitude."
"Only certain individuals in management companies are behaving this way. Some of the problematic issues in dealing with them include managers who are impossible to contact, very tardy in responding and not even bothering to reply WhatsApp messages.
"Sometimes I question whether we producers are begging for their time and services. In actual fact, we are the ones offering them jobs," he said.
Shahrulezad explained that the cause of the problem could be due to the management companies taking on too many artistes under their wing to the point where they could not properly handle the scheduling and other related matters.
"At times, there are also management companies that have a really long list of artistes under them and the clients are not well taken care of to the point where it becomes an inconvenience to other parties.
"There are other management companies that just sweep up personalities from TikTok that have huge followings.
"Then without any talent or work to their name, they already have a manager. So when they come for auditions, they don't actually have any talent to showcase," he said.
Shahrulezad added: "There are also artiste managers who put all of the blame solely on the artistes themselves even though these celebrities are not aware of their work schedule."
"Certain artiste managers say different things in front of us but when we query the artiste, they are unaware of things since they had not been informed by their managers.
"So some managers actually soil the name of their own artistes. From my experience, it's much easier to deal directly with the artistes," he said.
Shahrulezad elaborated that he still had a heart and would not blacklist these management companies just yet.
"I still have compassion. I could just push the 'red button' but I am reasonable and won't be making a drastic decision in the heat of the moment while I'm angry," he said.