The Government of Maharashtra, on April 4, announced a partial lockdown in the state to combat COVID-19. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, declared a night curfew from 8 pm to 7 am that came into effect from Monday. Not just this, a stricter weekend lockdown has been imposed in the state. Amid the surge in COVID-19 cases, the Government has permitted the film and television industry to continue shooting but with less crowd. Before taking the decision, Mr. Thackeray had a meeting with producers and filmmakers. JD Majethia,  the Chairman of Indian Films and Television Producers Council (IFTPC), was also a part of the meeting. Talking to a leading daily, JD shared the details of the discussion and informed that shooting for TV shows won't take place on Saturday and Sunday. 

"The shooting for TV shows, daily soaps won't happen on Saturday and Sunday because of complete lockdown. As per state Government's norm the production house have been informed and they have started working on their scripts accordingly. They will manage for this week and most people will have a bank of episodes. From next week, we will have to see how things will happen. We have to look at the bigger picture, we were about to enter another phase of lockdown but that has not happened," JD told. 

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Associations like the Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees (FWICE) and Cine and TV Artists’ Association (CINTAA) also attended the meeting. JD further added, "We had a meeting with the honorable CM Uddhav Thackeray on April 4 and we are happy that he understood our problems and complete lockdown was not introduced. Now, he has given us five days and every broadcaster has to think and according to the situation they will have to make a strategy for their channel that how they will make their FPC (TV broadcasting schedule) and what they will do. I am very sure that everybody will have a plan according to their shows, channel, marketing. I am confident that everyone will come together and will have a proper plan soon. But none of them can shoot on Saturday and Sunday."

JD, who has produced shows like Khichdi, Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, Baa Bahoo Aur Baby and others, shared, "Government has asked the TV industry to not shoot on weekends till April 30th. But this weekend will play a crucial part as we will get to know the result of not shooting on two days and how beneficial it has been. If things are under control in the entire state, then we will once again see if we can approach the State government next week. If we will start facing issues at our end like the episode bank and all, then we will approach the state government with our set of problems. We want to stand by the Government. This is a collective problem and we have promised the CM to stand by him."

(Source: Times Of India)