Entertainment industry stops all filming till end of this month

MUMBAI: As the coronavirus pandemic gathers pace in India, multiple trade associations affiliated to the world of entertainment have decided to stop all shooting of films, TV serials, ad films and web series from March 19-31. The industry stands to incur losses running into crores of rupees, apart from loss of jobs.

Associations led by IMPPA, WIPFA, ITDPC, IFTDA and FWICE met Sunday to announce this decision.

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"All shooting for cinema, television, web series and advertising will come to a halt Thursday," said Anil Nagrath, secretary of IMPPA (Indian Motion Picture Producers Association). "The government has closed

cinema

halls also which is a big loss for producers whose film screenings have been stopped midway or new releases rescheduled. But we have no choice. Shootings often involve gatherings of 150-200 people including artistes and technicians but even members of the public who gather to watch. Given the rate at which coronavirus is spreading, we have to lend a hand to the Centre's efforts to contain this pandemic."

Ashok Dubey

, honorary secretary of Federation of Western India Cine Employees, said, "Nothing is more important than life, is it? We will make losses owing to this closure but we are taking this step in the interest of our workers and technicians. On March 5, we had issued an advisory asking producers to use masks and sanitisers on sets but we found this directive was not being followed. As a result we have to truncate shooting for a few weeks."


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