Major stakeholders of the media and entertainment industry were part of a joint online meeting organised with Dr. Sanjay Mukherjee, secretary, cultural affairs, Maharashtra, on 28th May, 2020. The Producers’ Guild of India (Guild) was represented by Apoorva Mehta and Madhu Bhojwani. The Federation of Western India Cine Employess (FWICE) was represented by Ashoke Pandit (chief advisor), B.N. Tiwari (president) and Ashok Dubey (hon. general secretary). The Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association (IMPPA) was represented by T.P. Aggarwal. The Western India Film Producers’ Association (WIFPA) was represented by Sangram Shirke and Dharam Mehra. The Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal (MCM) was represented by its president, Meghraj Bhosale. Aadesh Bandekar was also part of the meeting which enabled all the stakeholders to discuss and decide upon the ways and means to work out Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) so that shooting can commence. The meeting was truly encouraging and there were a lot of fruitful conclusions pertaining to the future of the entertainment industry. The following points were discussed in the meeting:
1. Post-production activities should immediately start in line with all the health, safety and security norms and guidelines issued by the government.
2. A proper financial package to be worked out by the state government to facilitate the entertainment industry.
3. State government should ask all the insurance companies to come up with new ideas for designing suitable policies for the members of the entertainment industry to cope with the COVID-19 disease.
4. Premises owned by the state government should be given free of cost to producers for carrying out shootings along with a facility of single-window permission.
5. There should be no rentals on the sets that are erected in Film City, which are lying unused due to the lockdown, and that after the lockdown is lifted, the premises in Film City should be provided to producers at subsidised rates so as to cope with the losses incurred due to the lockdown. The subsidised rates shall be applicable till the city regains normalcy.
6. Until the city regains normalcy, there should be regular intervention and interaction of the government authorities in the functioning of the industry.
7. The SOPs already submitted by all the stakeholders of the industry shall be reviewed by Dr. Sanjay Mukherjee (chief secretary, cultural affairs) and presented to the state. He has assured that there have been serious discussions happening in the state government pertaining to the resumption of work of the media and entertainment industry.