MUMBAI: A 12-member delegation of television producers and broadcasters on Friday interacted with Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray who asked them to find safe and secluded places for resuming shooting.

In the zoom call, Thackeray responded positively to the delegation’s concerns and demands and assured them that shooting can restart soon. He asked them to identify green zones/safe areas for resuming shooting.

The delegation apprised the chief minister the huge losses the industry has been incurring since the lockdown was imposed in March. The leaders shared with him the concerns of job losses and the industry’s wish to restart shooting with utmost care and by adhering to SOPs.

He quickly addressed all issues and asked his team to set up a committee and work out the possibilities to start shooting at the earliest. The industry has to find out studios away from civilization, list of necessary precautions to be taken and spacious post production studios where social distancing can be maintained.

Once this is done, the permission for the maintenance of sets, monsoon sheds, fire safety measures, etc. can be obtained. The shooting has to be conducted with minimum crew. Government officials will also be visiting Goregaon film city to examine its safety.

Those who attended the meeting included: Zee Entertainment Enterprises managing director and chief executive officer Puneet Goenka, Sony Pictures Networks managing director and chief executive N P Singh, Network18 MD Rahul Joshi, Star & Disney India head K Madhavan,  Zee Entertainment Enterprises CEO Punit Misra, Endemol Shine India CEO Abhishek Rege, TV producer Ekta Kapoor, Banijay Asia founder-CEO Deepak Dhar, actor-producer Adesh Bandekar, Dr Sanjay Mukharji, Vikas Gharelu, Sudhir Naik, IFTPC managing member Nitin Vaidya, and jd Majethia.  

jd Majethia informed that the chief minister posed for a picture of the video conference meeting. “I was very happy to discover a hidden streak of our beloved CM’s sense of humour which kept everyone in the meeting comfortable. The chief minister concluded the meeting by asking us all to be positive and hopeful with a line of a song from film chhoti si baat “Aanewala pal jane wala hai,” said Majethia.

After several weeks of uncertainty, the television and broadcasting industry can finally heave a sigh of relief. Though an exact date has not been fixed yet, it is certain that production activities can resume soon. 

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