Dream factory, gutted

It was a place where dreams were made. By mid Monday morning, all that was left of Bharat Lakshmi Studio, on Prince Anwar Shah Road, were charred remains of studio floors, walls and props that were beyond recognition.
At around 8:30 am, a unit member noticed wisps of smoke on the sets of ���������Megher Palok���������. Smoke turned into fire, soon and engulfed a large part of the property.What was once the floor of ���������Megher Palok��������� turned into ashes. ���������The floor has been gutted and all costumes have been burnt. While half portion of the floors of ���������Sindoor Khela��������� have been damaged, that of ���������Sedin Dujone��������� remained largely unaffected barring minor damages,��������� said executive producer for these shows, Koustuvi Ghosh. Incidentally, all these shows are aired on Star Jalsa.
While some sources said that a short circuit lay at the root of this disaster, another camp blamed cabling problems and the lack of fire extinguishers as the main cause of the damage escalating to such a level. Investigations are on to find the actual cause of the fire. The fact that the call time for shoots is, generally, 9:30 am, prevented the disaster from gaining gigantic proportions. Producers now face the problem of finding an alternative shooting spot but the biggest headache would be to resume continuity.
The fire had spread from the studios to nearby slums leaving three persons injured. The people of the slums were also the first ones to help out unit hands try and save as much property as they could.
The boundary walls of the studio had structures which might have aggravated the fire. We have been able to avert a bigger disaster since the slum dwellers were the first to leap into action to contain the fire before the fire brigade arrived. There are two versions, one is that the fire brigade was late in reaching the spot and the other is that they did reach on time. I have ordered a probe to find that out as well.
��������� Javed Khan, minister for Disaster Management, Fire and Emergency Services, Civil Defence
I got a call at 8:30 am from my office and then, I rushed to the studios. While rumours of three to four floors being damaged are are doing the rounds, let me clarify, that just one has been damaged. The fire had only one casualty and I have got three stitches myself. I���������m clueless about the cause of fire as the main switches were off. Neither were there anybody smoking in the vicinity. The priority, now, is to recover the loss, mental and financial.
��������� Jyoti Choukani, owner, Bharat Lakshmi Studio
Right now, I���������m in San Francisco, shooting for ���������Ami Aparajito���������. When I got the news from my office, I was numb. The whole set of ���������Megher Palok��������� has been reduced to ashes. We cannot even shoot elsewhere since the damages to the props would amount to loss of continuity. I heard that the total estimated loss, as of now, amounts to `35-40 lakhs. It makes me shudder to even think of what would have happened had there been shooting going on on the floors.
��������� Aniruddha Roy Choudhury, producer, ���������Megher Palok���������
I got the news while I was on my way to Bharat Lakshmi. My call time was 9:30 am. When I reached, I was in tears. For a whole five minutes, no words escaped my mouth. I feel, we work amidst such uncertainties and bare minimum facilities. We have no clue how to continue with the shoot as nothing from among the props could be saved.
��������� Supurna Malakar, Rai of ���������Megher Palok���������
I guess this comes only second to the Stephen Court disaster. Thank God for the slum dwellers who helped unit hands to control the fire and recover whatever property they could. Luckily, shooting hadn���������t started yet when the fire broke out. I heard that a short circuit is being cited as the root cause of the fire but isn���������t it sad that such a busy and popular studio didn���������t have the requisite facilities to fight a disaster?
��������� Haranath Chakraborty, director
The main floor of ���������Sindoor Khela���������, by God���������s grace, hasn���������t been much affected but the small floor adjacent to it had been damaged. I am saddened to even think about the future of ���������Megher Palok���������. We haven���������t yet calculated our losses as we are busy organizing alternative shooting locations because, after all, the show must go on.
��������� Shrikant Mohta, one of the producers of ���������Sindoor Khela���������
Whether it���������s the set of ���������Sindoor Khela��������� that has been
damaged or ���������Megher Palok���������, is not my question. The point is, why should this happen in the first place? I heard that the fire was started by a short circuit and that the slum dwellers adjacent to the studio helped control it. But, I don���������t know of any large establishment that doesn���������t have enough equipments to deal with a fire breakout. I also heard that Jashodhara���������s office room has been affected.
��������� Gargi Roy Chowdhury, Jashodhara of ���������Sindoor Khela���������
The set of ���������Sedin Dujone��������� hasn���������t been that badly affected but that of ���������Megher Palok��������� has been totally destroyed. There were some common areas where we shot, like shops, temples etc. Now that those have been damaged, we have to come up with a different plan. Right now, we will have a meeting to discuss how to resume shooting.
��������� Biswajit Guha, from the production house of ���������Sedin Dujone���������