FEFSI President RK Selvamani has announced that all shootings will be halted starting March 19, Thursday, until further notice.
Even as film industries across the country announced cancellations of shootings on Sunday, the announcement from the Tamil film industry came almost a day later on Monday evening. In a circular issued by the Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI), its President RK Selvamani has announced that all shootings will be halted starting March 19, Thursday, until further notice. This will include shooting of films, television programmes and commercials.
“Even though the producers and team members will be affected because of this decision financially, their lives is of high importance and so we’ve had to take this difficult decision (sic),” reads the circular.
Noting that the spread of coronavirus was reportedly lesser in the state, the circular adds that due to lack of safety concerns in the film industry, this decision was being taken. This comes as a big announcement from the Tamil film industry.
On Sunday, the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce, Telugu Film Producers Council and Movie Artists Association (MAA) held a meeting together and unanimously agreed to postpone their shootings. This announcement came following the Telangana government’s directive to close cinema halls until March 21.
In a statement to the producers before they called for a meeting, actor Chiranjeevi wrote to them and appealed, “This is everyone’s responsibility. I request all the producers to postpone the shootings for another 10 to 15 days since shootings require manpower of 100 to 200 people. Avoiding large-scale gatherings is important to contain the spread of coronavirus.”
Indian Motion Picture Producers Association, Western India Film Producers Association, Indian Film and Television Producers Council, Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association and the Federation of Western India Cine Employees jointly on Sunday issued a statement cancelling shootings until March 31.
The Tamil film industry, however, has mentioned that shootings will remain cancelled until further notice.
Source: The News Minute