BOLLYWOOD WILL TAKE TIME

“To avoid that, every year, the legendary Nagi Reddy garu of Vauhini Studios used to relay the gardens and parks and sprucing up the police stations and roads in the studio to give fresh locations to filmmakers, but now such re-designing does not happen.”

Teja then points out to us why the practice stopped. “Unfortunately, even studio owners are catering to ten to fifteen starcentric movies instead of sixty to seventy odd medium- and small-range movies. For instance, if a producer has to shoot in a police station, first he has to repair it and then begin shooting. Besides big producers, others can’t afford it, so it has pushed out good number of film shootings outdoors,” he explains.

In addition, Teja claims that while a few studios have been thriving on TV reality shows and another one lends itself to Hindi and Tamil movies, now Telugu films will restart their shoots here too. “In a way, the safety guidelines are a blessing in disguise, and studio owners will heave sigh of relief,” he chips in. nlike their Telugu counterparts, Bollywood has still not allowed private film studios to open their doors for film shootings. Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari, which is also known as the “Film City of Mumbai”, is the only studio in which films and TV serials can be shot now. Several TV serials have already put up their sets at the studios with the permission to continue shoots after taking ensuring the safety norms.

Explaining to us that only Film City, which is owned by the Maharashtra Government, has been given permissions to start shoot senior film-industry analyst Atul Mohan says, “It will allow the government officials to monitor the shoots and see if all safety norms are being executed while the shooting is being done in Maharashtra. This is especially because Mumbai is still a red zone.”

B.N. Tiwari, president of the Federation Of Western India Cine Workers (FWICE), explains to us why he doesn’t see much happening in Film City until the pandemic-related issues are all sorted out. “While we have requested for a proper `50 lakh minimum guarantee cover for the workers, producers are not willing to shell out more than `10 lakh in case of any COVID-19-related eventuality. It is a different thing that even the Bengal film industry is offering

`50 lakh. So though shoots can begin at Film

City from 1 July, I do not see them starting shooting till they sort this with the workers,” he elaborates.

BACK TO THE BASICS

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U— Sanskriti Media

Another director Sampath Nandi, who has shot in exotic locales in Europe, Bangkok, Dubai and China for his films, is also compelled to return to a film studio to complete his next film Seeti Maar with Gopichand and Tamannaah. “Our first priority is safety of stars and crew members. Hence, we are planning to start shoot from August in a village set in a city studio,” says the director. But Sampath also tells us that he had even explored varied locations in the past. “Our film Rachcha was the first movie to be shot in China as we filmed an action episode in the Anji bamboo forests. Star-studded films demand virgin locales and visually pleasing spots. Also personally, I like to expand my visual imagination,” he concludes.

Rana Daggubati, Prabhas and Rajamouli on the sets of Baahubali

Ram Charan and Rakul Preet Singh on the sets of Bruce Lee