COVID-19 Impact: Producers’ Guild issues handbook explaining protocols for on-set practice during shoots

Bollywood is resuming work but with utter careful and small steps. While yesterday we have reported that Akshay Kumar resumed shooting for an advertisement, the cast and crew took preventive measures and followed guidelines on the set.

Now, in the recent update, Producers’ Guild developed the first draft of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) which will be followed by the cast and crew when the shoots will go on floors. These guidelines come in a set of two handbooks — a 12-page issue for the producers and another, 14-page issue for the cast and crew.

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These guidelines are issued by producers’ guild and supported and approved by the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE). Though, they have suggested 25 additional guidelines to the first draft, which will emphasise on the welfare of the daily wage earners and workers. Out of 25, 18 guidelines have been approved by the producers’ Guild, the rest clauses are yet to be discussed by the two bodies, in the presence of essential members of Indian Film and Television Producers’ Council (IFTPC), through a virtual meeting.

On these guidelines, BN Tiwari, president of FWICE, explains,”We believe every worker should have minimum security guarantee. So, we will be addressing vital points such as their shift hours, and their need for accommodation if they are reporting to a set. If a unit member tests positive for COVID-19, we will urge the concerned producer to bear the expense of his treatment in a private hospital.”

Some of the rules mentioned in the draft are:

-No member will be allowed to go home while the shoot is on, s/he must be put up in hotels
-Monthly payment be cleared at the end of the month
-All dues to be cleared at the end of the month
-Daily wage workers’ payment to be cleared on a daily basis
-Assuring minimum life insurance of Rs 50 lakh
-Work to be divided into two shifts; unit members to work on an eight-hour shift.
-If in any case, a unit member tests positive for Covid-19 during the shoot or travel for the shoot, he should be mandatorily provided treatment in a private hospital.