West Bengal artists' forum urges TV actors to not step outside for shooting amid lockdown

Amid the ongoing row over episodes of some Bengali TV serials being shot at home during restrictions on shootings since 16 May due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the West Bengal Motion Pictures Artists Forum on Friday asked actors not to go out of their homes for shooting violating curb. The stricture of the Forum followed claims by the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India (FCTWEI) on Thursday that a section of Bengali television serial producers is shooting new episodes outside homes of actors and passing it off as “work from home”. “We support the work from home concept following all prerequisite Covid guidelines. We are not for shooting outside homes, and not even in spacious roofs with cover,” a forum official said Friday. “We have urged actors not to go outside their homes to shoot. Shooting can be done only by a few and not in a gathering,” the official said. FCTWEI president Swaroop Biswas had alleged that shootings were being done in closed godowns and hotels by producers of three-four mega serials and they passed it off as work from home. Shoots for serials, web series, and films were stopped in West Bengal since May 16 following the imposition of curbs in the wake of the prevailing COVID-19 situation. The location and background of some episodes of certain TV soaps in the past few days indicated that the shoots, with one or two actors, did not take place at homes, Biswas had said. The federation also claimed that it has information that make-up artists were being asked to visit such shooting venues from 7 am to 10 am when markets are open and a higher number of vehicles ply on roads. The producers’ body, Welfare Association of Television Producers (WATP), said in a statement, “There are attempts to cause strain between the relationships of technicians, artists and producers.” Without naming anyone, the statement said, “Technicians are forced to not support the work from home concept during shoots. They are misinformed about remuneration during this period of restriction. “Let us tell them that from the day a new episode shot from home is aired, the technicians of a unit involved in the project will be given the due remuneration and not 30 per cent of their actual wages.”