COVID-19 impact | ‘Impractical’ guidelines make film, TV production ‘impossible’

In some states including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra, the shooting for film, TV serial and web series has been given a go ahead, but with a lot of riders.

And, it is these conditions that have led to another debate over the impracticality of the guidelines issued for shooting especially in Maharashtra.

The Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association (IMPPA) recently wrote a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray pointing out the non-feasibility of the guideline of casting actors from real-life families so that physical contact remains within the family.

The association said, “The guideline is impractical and impossible because all members of a family are not actors and acting is a specialized and a novel profession and it is not possible for most human beings to act and hence the guideline is meaningless.”

This is one of the many guidelines for which the stakeholders of the film and the television industry are seeking change.

Old is gold but not allowed on sets

Before IMPPA’s letter to the Maharashtra CM, even Indian Film & Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA) said that the clause to not allow artistes above 65 years was impractical as it would restrict great luminaries like Amitabh Bachchan, Paresh Rawal and Javed Akhtar among others.

IMPPA Secretary Anil Nagrath has also suggested that, instead of eight hours, the shooting involving elderly persons can be done in four hours and that they will be kept secluded.

Allowed to shoot but not getting permissions

Another issue when it comes to shooting in Mumbai especially Film City is that there is no clarity regarding permissions.

While the guideline issued by the Maharashtra government says that the managing director of Film City can grant shooting permissions, the word coming from those working at Film City is that they have not received any government resolution and are unable to give any permissions.

In other states, too, concerns were raised regarding guidelines. Take Tamil Nadu where there was a cap of 20 people on a set. However, the industry urged the state government to increase the number of people on the set. From May 31, those shooting TV serials in Tamil Nadu can have a maximum of 60 people on a set.

Although the number of people on a set has been enhanced, the number is a lot lower than the pre-COVID-19 level.

Job losses are imminent despite resumption in production

Also, if you look at the guidelines issued by Maharashtra for shooting, it mentions that the use of junior artistes should be reduced or avoided in scenes.

All this means that, despite the resumption in shooting, many people will not get their jobs back.

Experts say that from junior actors, dancers, light-men to make-up artists, these will be the first ones to lose their jobs. If a director has to cut down the crew size, it would be these people and not a cinematographer or a set designer.

While producers and directors are finding it difficult, they have resumed shooting work especially for TV serials which is less complex than film shooting. Yet, there are many guidelines that are making the production work very challenging.