As shootings of serials, films,
web series are suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, technicians of the industry, who get their wages daily, are finding it difficult to make both ends meet.
Around 12,000 technicians - dressers, hairdressers, spot boys, light men, canteen staff and others - get wages in the range of Rs 850-1,500 per day from production houses, industry sources said.
Dresser Birju Lal was working for Hindi film 'Bob Biswas', a Sujoy Ghosh production, in Kolkata.
Now, shooting has been stopped and he is waiting for the "dark phase, the uncertainty" to get over.
"It's a difficult phase, but still we can manage if the lockdown is lifted on April 15 and shooting resumes thereafter. But I don't know what will happen if it continues!" said Lal, who has been in the profession for 15 years.
The 35-year-old man has a little child, wife and parents to look after.
However, he considers himself lucky as he received some money from the producer for the scheduled end-March shooting phase, which had to be cancelled later due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Hairdresser Abhirup Ganguly said he was in the UK working for a Bengali film starring Jeet when the decision to cancel the shoot was communicated.
"We rushed back on March 24 and since then I am left with no work. In our industry, the rule is: no work no pay," he said.
"If everything is put off, if the lockdown continues, I shudder to think what will happen to us. I heard Salman Khan has promised to help 25,000 families of technicians in Bollywood. We hope some icons in Bengali film industry take a similar initiative, individually or jointly. But we can only hope," Ganguly said.
Biplab Barman, a middle-aged production assistant, said he is facing the most difficult time in his 25-year-long career.
"I was working for a film starring Bratya Basu. Its shooting stopped after for six to seven days of work in the first week of March. Then, shooting of Bob Biswas, with which also I was associated, was called off," he rued.
"Now I have no work for the next one month. I don't know what is in store for us," Barman said.
However, efforts are on to raise funds for technicians and for artistes who are not well off.
The Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India, the body of technicians in the state, has set a target of mobilising Rs 30 lakh for helping the technicians and requested every stakeholder in the industry to donate to the fund, the sources said.
Film director Aparna Sen earlier made an appeal to members of the film fraternity for contribution to a fund set up for daily wage earning technicians "to help them during these dark times when there is no work."
General Secretary of West Bengal Motion Picture Artists' Forum, Arindam Ganguly, said the organisation has paid Rs 3 lakh to the federation as financial support to the distressed technicians who are left with no job since March 18.
"This is our initial help. We will try to contribute more if possible in future. Our members are also contributing individually," he said.
Arindam Ganguly said the forum, which has around 3,500 members will also pay a sum of Rs 2,000 each to the poor artistes from April as they are on the verge of starvation due to the closure of shootings.
"Not all members are famous or well off. They are also equally starving like the technicians," he said.
On March 17, artistes, technicians and other stakeholders of the citys entertainment industry has resolved to suspend shooting of feature films, TV serials and web series between March 18 and 30 in wake of the novel coronavirus scare. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a complete lockdown across the country for 21 days from March 25.
Shootings for Mainak Bhowmik's film 'Chini', Nandita Roy-Shiboprosad Mukhopadhyay's 'Haami 2', Bratya Basu's 'Dictionary', Dhurba Banerjee's 'Golondaj', Srijit Mukherjee's third 'Kakababu' film were stopped, industry sources said.
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