The Tamil film industry is expected to return to a normal state of affairs only by September.
Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) president R.K. Selvamani on Wednesday said, “Though we can start shooting in some limited way from June, complete normalcy in operations will return only in September.”
A decision on returning to work will only be taken after the official removal of lockdown, he said and added that the 25,000-strong union will need to take stock after the lockdown is fully removed.
“We need a week to take stock after lockdown is completely removed. Cinema is not an essential, so even if the lockdown is partially removed, cinema will be one of the last industries to start working. Rapid testing needs to be started. I doubt if we can start working in May,” he said.
Ruling out the possibility of conducting COVID-19 tests on all union members or maintaining strict physical distancing on sets, Mr. Selvamani said: “It is also not possible to maintain physical distancing in movie shoots. Hero and heroine have to act together. The cameraman and director have to work together closely. We can make masks compulsory but we cannot maintain physical distance all the time. Also, it is not possible to test all our 25,000 members. There have been no COVID-19 cases in the union, thankfully.”
He said that the biggest challenge was to convince the audience to come to theatres.
“People might come to theatres around Deepavali. The fans might come but I doubt if families would go to the theatres,” he said.
Donations not enough
Mr. Selvamani also said that donations from various actors to FEFSI were not enough to provide relief to members.
“If we have to give ₹1,000 to 25,000 members, we will need ₹2.5 crore. Now, we have received around ₹3.25 crore. We have now given a bag of rice plus ₹500 to only 20,000 members. We are still falling short,” he said.
