FWICE general secretary says film shoots may not resume anytime soon

FWICE’s Ashok Dubey has said while producers are discussing guidelines for maintaining safety and health on sets, shooting may not resume soon after things normalise.

As the government relaxes several restrictions and allows various offices to function almost two months after a complete lockdown was announced due to the Covid-19 pandemic, film and TV shoots may not begin anytime soon. Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) general secretary Ashok Dubey has said.

A lot of safety measures will also have to be followed on sets when the shooting resumes after lockdown ends.

Ashok told Mumbai Mirror, “We spoke with CINTAA yesterday. We are making guidelines on how we can go ahead with shootings. Our main people are artistes, technicians. We spoke through video conferencing and we are working on a draft as to what can be the working conditions. We will again convene through a video conference on Saturday and decide how we can go ahead.”

“Nothing has been finalised yet. Mumbai is a red zone and the lockdown is there till May 17 at least and we cannot think of shooting now. We have spoken with Siddharth Roy Kapur too and he said that we will have a video conference call with Indian Motion Picture Producers (IMPPA), Indian Film and Television Producers Council (IFTPC) and Western India Film Producers’ Association on how we should go ahead,” he added.

As per an internal discussion leaked online, producers are preparing guidelines for maintaining safety and health of those on sets. From sanitization to social distancing and other such measures like closed studios, larger tents with portable ACs for shooting and limiting people on the sets, the producers have come up with several measures to ensure safety. They also plan to sanitise all common areas, make masks and gloves compulsory for all staff and disinfect equipment regularly.

The Producer’s Guild of India issued a clarification regarding the information online. “A work-in-progress document prepared by the Guild of draft guidelines for resumption of shooting activities has recently been circulating widely in the media and industry. This is to clarify that this document is only an early internal draft prepared by the Guild in preparedness for the future resumption of shooting activities. Any final safety protocols and guidelines will be formalised only after comprehensive consultations with government officials, medical professionals and relevant industry bodies,” the statement said.

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