After the first wave of coronavirus pandemic, the entertainment industry was trying to recuperate.  The industry has been gearing up for films that could not be released earlier. The theatres were shut in order to contain the spread of the virus.  Last six months, many producers tried to wrap up the unfinished work and also came up with new projects.  The second wave of Covid 19 in India has hit the Entertainment Industry even harder.

Sooryavanshi and Thalaivi postponed

The release of films like Akshay Kumar’s “ Sooryavanshi” and Kangana Ranaut’s ambitious Jaya Lalitha biopic Thalaivi has been postponed. Chances Salman Khan’s “Radhe” too will release on Eid 2022. Now there’s an update on Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathan and Ranbir Kapoor’s Brahmastra. Fans have been eagerly waiting for both films for a long time. And Covid-19 pandemic has led to a delay in the filming and post-production work of both films. Both Ayan Mukerji’s film “Brahmastra” and Siddharth Anand’s film “Pathan” were planned to be shot on a big scale.

Two very interesting mega projects were halted due to the recent guidelines. Maharashtra government issued the directive in the wake of spike in COVID-19 positive cases. Consequently, Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone’s film Pathan and Ranbir Kapoor’s Brahmastra have been halted.  The movies were to be directed by Siddharth Anand and Ayan Mukherji respectively. 

For both these movies, Pathan and Brahmastra, huge sets were being constructed.  Interestingly, the set for Pathan was being built on the helipad of Film city that involved the shooting of John Abraham and Shah Rukh Khan. Each set had about 250 members from the setting department. The crew was on the job round the clock.  The work was supposed to continue for about a month or so. Ashok Dubey, general secretary of FWICE informed that the worst sufferers are the daily wage workers, working for the studio setting department.
The halting of the aforementioned & other mega projects have resulted in the loss of wages for numerous workers.

Shoots impacted

Zahid Shaikh of Cine Dancers Association (CDA) informed that about 50 per cent of the workforce was back on sets but the government is asking the producers to avoid the crowd on the set. We are the first to get hit by this rule and as a result, several shoots have been cancelled.”

There was a ‘Brahmastra’ song that needed 300 dancers, rehearsals for the same were done but now the shooting is cancelled. In the case of ‘Brahmastra’, first Ranbir Kapoor got Covid so work was stopped for 15 days.  Thereafter,  Alia Bhatt got infected and now there’s a government mandate to not shoot big songs which is really unfortunate. “Pathan” co-starts Deepika & John Abraham had wrapped up most of the shootings.  The audiences were eagerly  looking forward to the movie.  The reunion of Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan on the silver screen after a very long time created uproar amongst fans.