SET-TING UP FOR A NEW START!
With multiple movie sets being dismantled due to no shoots and monsoon threat, is shooting out of India or Mumbai an option?
With no movie shoots taking place for over two months now, filmmakers have surely been feeling the pinch. And those who had their [film] sets erected before the lockdown have been badly hit. Now, as the cost of maintaining the sets spiral and monsoon coming close, they are being dismantled.
Reportedly, Akshay Kumarstarrer Prithviraj’s twin sets [in Dahisar] are set to be pulled down. Also, Ajay Devgn’s Maidaan sets – of a football ground spread over 16 acres – has been dismantled.
Experts believe that maintaining a set can cost anything between ₹5 crore to ₹50 crore depending on its lavishness. A long duration maintenance isn’t feasible for any filmmaker at this point and that’s why dismantling becomes logical.
Now, as sets get dismantled, can filmmakers look at moving out of India – once things become fine across the world – to complete their films? “It can be an option for those who still have to wrap up huge chunks of their films, provided they find a way to cheat and shoot outside
India, or even Mumbai where things are under control,” says Nikamma director Sabbir Khan, who has 3-4 days of work left on the film.
Some feel that moving out of India “won’t be easy”. Nikkhil Advani, who has about 10 days’ work left on Arjun Kapoor-Rakul Preet Singh starrer, says, “I can’t think of shooting out of Mumbai just for the sake of completing a film. There are so many daily wage workers whose livelihoods depend on Hindi film shoots. I would rather wait and start work in the city, unless my script demands otherwise. For instance, my show, Mughals has to be shot in Uzbekistan, and even [Akshay starrer] Bell Bottom is to be shot in a couple of countries.”
Maidaan makers, too, have no plans to “travel out of India or Mumbai in a rush to have their film completed.” “Our film is a sports film with many actors and a huge team. How will we take out 500 people now, and shoot? It’s very difficult. We plan to erect the sets again around September-October and start the shoot possibly in November. We still have about 30 days’ shoot left on the film,” says a source close to the film’s production team.