Chennai, May15 : Film workers apex body FEFSI announced that 16 TV shoots that were going on after getting permission from TN CM , will no longer work as the spread of Covid 19 in the cine field was rapid. FEFSI President R K Selvamani announced that Director Mani Ratnam and co- producer Jayendra deposited Rs 10 crores in the ICICI bank and has made arrangements for 10,000 FEFSI workers to get six months an amount of Rs 1500 to buy provisions for cooking . This he said was got by the director putting together an anthology project in which Suriya and many others worked free.. The money got sale to OTT Netflix was used for the film workers welfare. Actor Ajith has donated Rs 10 lakh to the FEFSI.
Elaborating the present situation,, Selvamani said that he had got permission from TN CM to allow TV serials numbering 16 to continue shoot as they were in various stages of production. He said that a random check showed that 25 out of 36 unit members tested positive in a TV shoot. The aged father- mother staying with the unit hand also tested positive and was hospitalized. All three of them died and the wife is yet to know about it, he said.
As most of the film workers lived with families in one room houses, the spread was harming the society at large. He said that the producer's were washing their hands off and insurance companies were citing small print to deny death beniefits due to Covid 19. In the present situation where hospital beds are scarce, it is better that shootings be stopped. " Most of the workers reported for work as they thought that even if they were infected, their family will be free from starvation. But now it is seen that it is spreading to society at large. In the first wave, there was few deaths in filmdom but now the toll is more. Only known faces death are coming in news but several others are dying ," said Selvamani.
He said that more than giving money to FEFSI, a project like Mani Ratnam did would in the long run be helpful to film workers as 99% of them were surviving on daily wages.
Sivakumar and sons Suriya- Karthi donated Rs 1 crore to CM fund in a first followed by Ajith who gave Rs 25 lakh. Rajanikanth's daughter Soundarya wrote, "My father-in-law Mr S.S.Vanangamudi, husband Vishagan, his sister and I visited the honorable Chief minister @mkstalin sir this morning to hand over our contribution of 1cr for the chief ministers #CoronaReliefFund from our pharma company Apex laboratories, Makers of #Zincovit (sic)." Rs 25 lakhs was donated by director- producer A R Murgadoss.
The Navarasa nine part anthology is produced under the banner Justickets in association with AP International and Wide Angle Creations as executive producers. The films will be directed by actor Arvind Swamy (“Roja”), making his directorial debut, Bejoy Nambiar (“Shaitan”), Gautham Vasudev Menon (“Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa”), Karthik Subbaraj (“Petta”), Karthick Naren (“Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru”), K.V. Anand and Priyadarshan among others has Suriya (“Soorarai Pottru”), Parvathy Thiruvothu (“Halal Love Story”), Vijay Sethupathy (“96”), Nithya Menen (“Breathe: Into The Shadows”) and Siddharth (“Leila”) in the cast.
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