Getting behind the scenes of curbs and curfews

For cinema audiences, curfews and curbs mostly mean postponed film releases and 50 per cent seating in theatres. For those in the industry, that’s just one part of the story. We take a look at what goes on behind the screens when the government gets cracking to curb COVID cases:

Hemanth M Rao, who has just begun to shoot for the latest schedule of the Rakshit Shetty- and Rukmini Vasanth-starrer, Saptha Sagaradache Yello, shares that the sudden turn of events has led to much inconvenience with regard to dates.
“There are cancellations and if your films have many actors, especially character artistes who are busy with multiple films, it becomes a tough task. Since weekend shoots are now out of the question, all the dates have to be juggled. With the two-year delay, they already have backlogs, so the current scenario will further add to the confusion with regard to artistes’ dates,” observes Hemanth.

What does one do with hired tech staff and expensive equipment when curbs are announced? Filmmaker Tarun Shivappa shares his plight. Currently with an untitled film on the floor with several artistes, Tarun has enlisted an outdoor technical crew and the equipment, including high-end cameras, have been flown down from Mumbai.
“So even if we are shooting for five days, I have to bear the cost of their stay, food and also pay them despite not shooting on weekends. So, obviously, the production costs go up,” he tells us.

“Most locations, including schools, colleges, MNCs and some prominent spots, are only available on weekends; so, the weekend curfew puts a spoke in the wheels with regard to shooting at these places,” points out director Tharun Sudhir. “Thankfully, I just wrapped up my film Guru Shishyaru at a school in the nick of time. Otherwise, we would have been left scrambling with our schedule,” says Tharun.

Hemanth M Rao shares that the calls sheets for Saptha… are from 9 am to 6 pm and 6 pm to 2 am. “Of this, three hours are devoted to lighting alone. So, night shoots clearly become a challenge since we have to wrap things up by 10 pm on weekdays,” he tells us.
Tarun Shivappa adds that his unit had many night shoots scheduled through the week, “but now we lose out on 12 days in a month owing to the curfew timings.”

ike many other industry folk, actor Sidharth Mahesh was ready to hit the theatres with his latest flick, but has decided to postpone the release. “Weekends are when the collections are good because that’s when the family crowds come into theatres. Obviously, we don’t want to miss out on this segment, so it’s best to postpone releases,” he says.

Actor and filmmaker Malashree remains unfazed by the weekend curfew though a film backed by her is currently playing in the theatres. “The authorities have imposed it for our good. Safety comes first. We always have the weekdays for us to recover that money,” she says.

Actor and director Ramesh Aravind, currently in the midst of taping for Shivaji Surathkal 2, says the team has now made it a five-day week for the crew.
“Our planning has been rather meticulous and I’m sure others have also figured out a way to work around these things. We had some outdoor shoots, but we have postponed them to February when, hopefully, things are better. We are finishing all our Bengaluru portions in the interim. I think the overall industry fabric has become such that we are slowly but surely learning to embrace any eventuality or unpredictability. Producers, especially, have understood the game,” he sums up.