KOCHI: Following the decision by makers of some movies — including Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Mohanlal-starrer Bro Daddy — to shift the shooting to places outside Kerala like Hyderabad, office-bearers of various film bodies have urged the government to give sanction to resume film shooting in the state.
The location hunt for Bro Daddy, which will be Prithviraj’s next directorial venture after Lucifer, was over last week. With the government yet to give permission, the makers have decided to shoot at Ramoji Rao Film City in Hyderabad. In many cities outside Kerala, shooting has been allowed.
Following Bro Daddy, producers of six other movies, who need to shoot interior scenes, have approached the Kerala Film Producers Association to shift locations to cities outside Kerala. However, the office-bearers of film bodies said this will lead to a situation where the workers, especially thousands of daily wage workers, who are in Kerala, will be left jobless.
“If shooting is shifted to Bengaluru or Hyderabad, the producers will be forced to hire workers for their units from the respective states. This will drastically affect the daily wage workers of Mollywood, who are solely dependent on cinema for livelihood. They are already in a crisis because of the pandemic,” said Kerala Film Chamber president G Sureshkumar.
The Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) on Wednesday also issued a statement urging the government to review its decision. “The government has already permitted makers of TV serials to resume shooting. Why is permission being denied to the film industry,” asked FEFKA president Sibi Malayil and secretary Unnikrishnan B in a joint statement issued here.
Unnikrishnan said most workers and technicians of the industry have already taken at least the first vaccine dose. “Producers will make sure all workers in film units have undergone the RT-PCR tests and shooting will be carried out by forming a bio bubble,” Unnikrishnan said.