‘This is not the time to talk about our personal losses’
SCARLETT JOHANSSON ACTOR
Everything has been thrown into a disarray, with the second wave of Covid-19 gripping India. The entertainment sector, which was just beginning to get back on its feet since late last year, is again seeing work get stalled. Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt says, the business was still being impacted even after things looked up around October last year, with theatres reopening after seven months.
“We are still reeling under the impact. Even Sanjay Gupta’s Mumbai Saga, which was released in mid-March, was badly hit by the lockdown. I’m sure he suffered losses on a film that’s complete,” shares Bhatt, adding that the situation is grim everywhere. “But, when you look around and see people dying, you realise your problems are very little compared to what others are going through,” he says.
While the 52-year-old admits that there is trouble around, he insists this is the time to come together to fight the virus; “Our theatres are in a lot of trouble, but the nation is in bigger trouble. Now is not the time to talk about personal losses. This is the time for us to join hands and come together as a nation.”
Bhatt was shooting for a project, Anamika, with actor Sunny Leone, but work got stalled as a lockdown was announced in Maharashtra, in the last week of April.
“I was almost done with the shoot when work was stopped yet again. We did rapid antigen tests every day and an RT-PCR every seven days. Luckily, I had another project, Bisaat: Khel Shatranj Ka (recently released web series), which I had finished in the interim period. We only had a few cases there,” he further adds.
Ask what keeps him occupied during this lockdown, and Bhatt reveals it is his writing. “I am writing a lot. My boss Mahesh Bhatt, an integral part of my company’s creative process, is after me when I’m not doing enough. He is a taskmaster. Thankfully, writing is something you can do when you’re in a lockdown,” he signs off.
Our theatres are in a lot of trouble, nation but the is in bigger trouble. VIKRAM BHATT,
PFilmmaker