As the second wave of the pandemic severely affected the nation, it has become essential for everybody to get vaccinated in order to fight the deadly coronavirus. So, as to bring Bollywood back on track, the Producers’ Guild of India and the Indian Film & Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA), in association with the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), are organising vaccination drives for the cast and crews of film units in the coming weeks.
The Producers Guild of India (PGI), the premier association of the leading Indian film, television and digital content producers will launch tomorrow a vaccination drive for its members and associated production crews. Through these camps, thousands of production house personnel and crews will be vaccinated over the multi-day drive being held at Mehboob Studios, starting June 1st 2021.
It is hoped that this camp shall contribute to the national mission of attaining universal vaccination and also facilitate safer shooting and content production. All the workers actively involved in the production process will be vaccinated in the new drive organised by the federation. The unions are collectively aiming to immunise close to 10,000 people, including artists, producers, daily-wage workers and freelancers.
There will be a six-day programme which will be held at Mehboob Studios in Bandra from tomorrow onwards organised by The Guild. Manish Goswami, vice-president, Guild, says that they are targeting close to 5,000 people. Those already registered on Co-WIN can receive their vaccination at the venue. This is being done in association with Bhakti Vedanta Hospital, and each jab is priced at Rs 1,000. The cost will be borne by the respective production houses. They may increase the vaccine rollout, depending on the turnout.
Major production houses including Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Rohit Shetty Picturez and Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment have come forward to support and join hands with this initiative.
Expressing appreciation for the many contributions that enabled this camp, Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of the Producers Guild of India, said, “An activity of such importance and magnitude cannot be carried out singlehandedly and we are extremely grateful for the support we have received to make this possible. In particular from our members Excel Entertainment who played a pivotal role in securing the vaccines and Mehboob Productions who very generously offered complimentary use of the spacious Mehboob Studios. We are happy that we are able to provide this facility to our members, their employees and the cast and crew of their productions as we work to get the industry back on its feet again in the weeks ahead.”
Apart from this, IFTDA and FWICE in collaboration with Surya Hospital will also conduct their parallel immunisation camp for 5,000 members at the Federation office in Andheri and will start the drive between June 10 and 15. This drive will be organised and funded by Ashoke Pandit, president, IFTDA.
Apart from Andheri and Bandra camp, the federation is also planning to set up another camp at Goregaon Film City after some time. Ashoke Pandit also revealed that Yash Raj Films has also come up to support this drive and has promised to provide funds for 30,000 vaccine shots. And it is also speculated that Chief Minister’s Office has sent its approval to proceed with the plan.
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