A day after the FWICE urged the Maharashtra government to allow post-production work to begin, Indian Motion Pictures’ Production Association (IMPPA) has now written a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, requesting for similar permission.
In the letter, IMPAA said, “As your kind self is well aware, the entire film and entertainment industry has been in a complete state of lockdown since 16-3-20 when the Government of Maharashtra stopped all production activities and as such all activities related to shooting, pre-production and post-production have been fully and totally suspended. All our producer members and everyone else associated with the film and entertainment industry have been left jobless and with no income and hence other sectors of the industry are looking after the welfare of their members and we are extending help to our needy members to survive in these difficult days but due to the wide spread extension of the lockdown on account of the uncontrollable spread of the coronavirus, it has led to a situation which is very volatile and dangerous from the point of view of survival of our members.”
Thanking the state government for a swift handling of the situation, IMPPA urged that members be allowed to go ahead and complete the post production of their films and other entertainment products “as in majority of cases, all the shooting and other work has been completed except for the editing, dubbing and post production which are all activities performed indoors in secluded offices with very limited number of personnel like in editing only 2 or 3 persons and in mixing and special effects also only 2/3 persons are required and these activities can safely be carried out maintaining full social distancing after taking all safety and security precautions.”
“As the stoppage of all post production activities has resulted in halting of completion of our members entertainment products resulting in their investment getting hopelessly stuck and therefore in the interest of all our members, we earnestly request you to kindly include all entertainment products post production activities in the list of permissible activities so that the same can resume without any delay thereby providing tremendous relief to our members by enabling them to monetize their product,” the letter stated.
Earlier this week, the parent body of 32 different crafts of the workers and technicians of the industry – FWICE, said several producers have invested crores of rupees into projects which are now languishing in uncertainty due to the lockdown. FWICE said in a statement, “We would like to bring to your kind notice that there are numerous projects of the Media and Entertainment Industry which are halted due to lockdown and can be completed soon as only the post production activities such as editing, sound recording, music recording and others are pending. If permissions are given to carry out such post production activities of these projects, which can be done in closed studios with minimum workforce, it would be great relief to the producers who have poured in huge funds and that they shall be all set to release their projects immediately after the lockdown is lifted.”