With the coronavirus pandemic bringing the world to a stop, people have lost their daily wage, weddings have been halted, schools shut down. Life as we knew it truly disappeared in a way. Some industries cannot even function with the ‘work from home’ settings, one such being the entertainment industry. While films have begun releasing on OTT platforms like Netflix, it is impossible to shoot for new ones. Recently, the Cine And TV Artistes' Association (CINTAA) chairperson Amit Behl represented India at a zoom call conference that saw delegates from America and the UK to decide on standard operating procedures (SOP) that will be in place once shooting resumes, owing to the interactive nature of filming.
According to a report on Mid Day, Amit Behl said "Big countries, like India, will have to adhere to the sops since we go abroad to shoot, and foreign productions come here. We have to get a global handshake before we start filming. If a second spike happens, we must be prepared. We want to resume filming, but not at the cost of lives,"
The guidelines discussed focused on a number of issues, including filming of intimacy scenes, as well as discussions around keeping a virologist on set.
“Primarily, we requested stakeholders to not cut corners by approaching broadcasters directly, but to reach out to associations. The SAG-AFTRA [Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artistes] will work closely on the sops,”Amit Behl
While the world prepares for a possible comeback from this shut-down, it remains to be seen how well we implement the new rules, and if a complete revisitation of usual ways of working is required.
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