MUMBAI: The pandemic has brought many challenges along with it and one of them is to do constant sanitisation drives at homes and workplaces.

It has been more than a month since the Maharashtra government gave the nod to resume TV and film production, albeit with conditions. Yesterday, the I&B ministry also announced SOPs for film, TV, and OTT to restart production. The move is expected to bring back the cheer to the industry. 

However, the rising Covid2019 cases on the production sets have instilled a sense of fear among producers. In order to maintain hygiene and safety production houses are conducting regular sanitisation, thermal checking, and taking several other measures.

Manish Pupat, who last worked with Contiloe Pictures along with Fidelis Management Consultants director Harish Kale, has collaborated with Tisa Tech Secure CEO Atharva Samant to run a Covid2019 compliance service.

Kale says that forming together with a new company and getting directors on board was a tedious process hence they found it better to join Samant’s company. Samant who is an expert in the safety and security space has an international and domestic experience of 11 years. He runs a company named Tisa Tech Secure, a security systems integration and consultancy company.

Founded three months ago, the company is now providing services to BMC, certain Covid2019 hospitals, film, and television production houses. Tisa Tech Secure has provided services to Endemol Shine India and Viacom18 non-fiction show Fear Factor, Studio Next’s Ek Duje Ke Vaste 2 , Directors Cut’s Yeh Rishte Pyar Ke. The firm has also done an outdoor shoot for Banijay. It has provided services for  BBC, Studio Next, and Emmay for a series. The company has also done Covid2019 compliance for Big Boss Promo. It also includes a few ad films with Ransom and Goodfellas. All Zee5 series have Tisa Tech Secure health and safety officers deputed across Mumbai, Hyderabad, Goa and several other places. The firm has also been signed up by few international OTT Platforms for managing and ensuring all their shows and series are Covid2019 compliant.

Pupat who is ecstatic to join the company said that the entire process of providing compliance services became quite seamless after they decided to hire experienced and trained manpower in the health and safety space. The professionals only needed the training to understand the entertainment industry aspects.

Speaking about the overall Covid2019 compliance market size Pupat said, “Every shoot that happens in the entertainment space - TV fiction, TV non-fiction, a series, films, ad films, documentaries, promos, photoshoot, the entire gamut is the market size.”

Kale who has been a part of the media and entertainment industry for more than 18 years believes that trust is the most important part of this service business. There is complete transparency of pricing, in fact depending upon the need of the client pricing is adjusted. He said, “Even if you provide great services but there is no market credibility then the journey becomes difficult.”

Process

The process involves recce of the shooting site, with the intention to identify areas that have high chances of getting infected. Post the recee, the TISA team presents a customized solutions presentation to the entire team, which includes crew, production, creative, and in some cases artists and directors and DOP as well. The solutions will differ for an indoor shoot and an outdoor shoot.

Speaking about challenges faced while working for film and television production houses Samant said, "After every deal a detailed set-up is done and it requires a lot of effort. When a project is canceled on the very last moment it creates a lot of chaos, which the production houses don't realise. Sometimes our people leave for the set and then we receive the call that the shoot is not happening. Sometimes we get the call in the middle of the night to arrange people for services. However, the good thing is producers, actors, technicians all are involved in the process."

Samant along with Kale looks after operations and training of people, whereas Pupat handles the sales and marketing part of the business. Samant also handles equipment and procurement.

Pupat and Samant mentioned that trained manpower and the sheer motto of safety as a service sets them apart from other competitors. Additionally, the entire quotations are extremely transparent and detailed for the client to make their decisions easier. At the end, the clients are billed on the actual quantity used rather than charging them for the entire deal.

While mentioning what has helped them the most while working with clients Pupat said, "I and Harish understand the industry as we have been around for long. Together we hold an experience of nearly 50 years. Add to that Atharva's experience in the safety space and immediate adaptation to the industry and its requirements."

As of now, the firm has hired over 25 health and safety officers and about 50 members in the sanitization Team plus four executives in the back-end for coordination.

Pre-shoot sanitisation process involves disinfection and misting. It covers the entire set, main floor, vanity vans, makeup rooms, PCR rooms, equipment, etc. All the disinfectants are EPA approved. The entry has a disinfecting tunnel loaded with thermal scanning kiosks. It also keeps a log of people entering. A team of two or three people is stationed for temperature screening. Apart from that the entire sanitation and fumigation process is done in front of the actors to build trust and a sense of security.

The tools and other equipment are purchased from different vendors across India and some are purchased with the help of Samant's contact in the security ecosystem.

As of now, the firm is not doing any promotional or marketing activities the business is purely run on word of mouth. According to associates, there have been no apprehensions from the client while choosing the services. They believe that once the client avails the services they themselves introduce them to other producers. Market credibility has helped them the most.

No one knows when the pandemic will get over, however, Pupat, Kale, and Samant who started this business with the intention to provide end to end services will eventually go back to their respective areas of work once normalcy returns. Pupat will go back and join a channel and production house as he has predominantly been a COO and business head with numerous organisations over the years. Samant will return to his business of financial audits of budgets and shoots for films, OTT platforms etc and Samant will continue to provide safety and security to his existing list of clientele. Along with this Pupat along with a couple of friends is extensively working on a startup idea that is in the rural media space.