#COVID2.0: Tollywood votes for safety, postpones shoots

The whole country is going through a difficult time with the

COVID-19

case load growing fast every day. Closer home, many actors, directors and technicians from the entertainment industry in Bengal have tested positive, impacting shoots in a big way.
The shooting of Kaushik Ganguly’s Khabadi Khabadi has been put on hold after the director tested positive on Wednesday. Speaking to CT after the news broke,

Arjun Chakrabarty

, one of the lead actors in the film, had said, “We came back from the outdoor shoot on April 24. None of us had any symptoms while we were shooting. It was after returning that I heard Kaushikda had tested positive and Ritwick is down with fever. I got myself tested and my report came negative on Tuesday night.”
Arindam Sil had also stopped the shoot of

Mahananda

keeping the

current situation

in mind. “We shot for three days in April before deciding to stop. We plan to resume from the beginning of May. We’ll be creating a bio bubble before shooting starts, will do

RT-PCR

test for everyone and restrict our movement. During outdoor shoots, the chances of contracting the virus will be low,” said Sil.
Anshuman Pratyush, who started shooting for

Nirbhaya

on April 22 with Priyanka Sarkar, Gaurav Chakrabarty and others, has also put the shoot on hold. “We started shooting last week but after two days we stopped because of the situation. Health is our priority right now and we must concentrate on that as the shoot can happen later. We’ll decide when to resume our shoot after the situation improves,” Anshuman told us.
Meanwhile, Sagnik Chatterjee is shooting in Darjeeling for his film Master Anshuman from April 21. “We are following all protocols given by the local administration. Everyone in my unit was tested before joining the shoot. We are working with a small unit, everyone is wearing double masks and we are also maintaining social distance as much as possible while shooting,” Sagnik told us.
Priyanka Trivedi, who had joined Sagnik’s team in Darjeeling on Wednesday, has started shooting from today. “There is a lockdown in Bangalore so I reached Kolkata on Friday. On Wednesday, my mother and I landed in Siliguri and from there we came to Darjeeling. I have started shooting from today and the whole unit is maintaining all safety measures on the sets,” she told us.
On the other hand, Moubani Sorcar is on too keen on stepping out for shoots, so she’ll be shooting for Tanmoy Roy’s film Swapner Sandhane at her home on Saturday. “A few shots of mine are left, so we’ll shoot those at home. I’m too scared to step out in this situation,” she told us.