SPB infection -a warning ignored by TV sector

 The contracting of the virus by SPB at a TV show in Hyderabad should have send shock signals and started corrective measures. The whole thing was swept under the carpet as it did not suit the TV channel bosses. When the KBC promo shoot was on, we got visuals posted by Big B of men in PPE suits working . It send out a message that it is a matter of concern. Today by a rough count TV actors totaling around 40 and still counting are under treatment across South TV channels, The list of technicians who got it as usual is not available as they do not make news. Even the question raised in SPB issue was whether he got it from a singer from the show, but not towards the laxity of the channel.

 A shoot of a TV reality show in Hyderabad was the place from where SPB got the virus and many musicians who took part in the shoot had tested positive is a testimony to the flaws in the permissions granted. The plight of an ordinary actor who gets tested positive receives no support from the production company or team is evident from the plight of veteran actress Siva Parvathy. The shooting permission rules only specifies about the number of technicians on the sets and other standard procedures. It does not ask for a test report for COVID from those taking part in the shoot. The testing of singer Malavika and her declared positive has only brought this anomaly to light. Malavika says that her entire family stayed at home for past 5 months and that she was tested positive on August 8^th, Staying at home does not guarantee  immunity from the virus and if she had not taken the test, she would continue to be COVID free even now.  Her  defense that  she was not COVID 19 positive when she took part in the reality show shoot on July31st at Hyderabad with SPB does not hold water. She says that only after August 5^th (day SPB was tested positive) that she, her father-mother and husband- daughter took the test. On 8^th , she ,her parents and daughter  were tested positive and on 19^th, her father was admitted to the hospital. She says that many on the sets had tested positive. She said SPB messaged her -‘I was very tired; I have been shooting for 4 days continuously and don’t forget my age.’

The lax conditions in which the show shoot was conducted should have made the State Government to seal the studio and declare it as containment zone. Nothing of this happened. A shop or market which has been the place from where the virus was contracted is shut down. A house from where a person tests positive is pasted with a warning notice. No shooting houses or locations have ever been subjected to this. We saw the news clip of a family being shut inside a house with tin sheets barricaded against their doors and windows , as one of the family was tested positive. Markets are shut down when a positive case is reported. Why the double standards for the TV sector?

The scenario in Kerala is grave with almost every day, the channels showing that an actor has been replaced due to being afflicted by Covid 19. We saw the making of the promos of Bigg Boss Tamil with Kamal Haasan. Did they show the technicians working on the shoot and behind the camera showing the SOP being followed? Contestants are quarantined at a city hotel and the whole exercise has boiled down to catch visuals to reveal who these people are as the Channel has kept it a secret.

If the State Government does not take tough steps in monitoring the TV sector which uses shooting bungalows, channel’s studios and public places, the outcome could be very disastrous.  Media is eager to show leaked visuals from the start of a shoot of a Ajith film after post lockdown and in the same breath shows common men walking on the street without mask and blaming the police for not enforcing the law. Time to wake up.

We reported this on August 21 in our blog.