One of the biggest challenges that the entertainment industry is facing is the problem of shooting intimate scenes without posing a risk to the health of the actor. Due to the recent spread of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown, the troubles of the industry were already high. Even as lockdowns are being lifted, this topic has kept producers and directors in dilemma.
This has caused the directors and producers to rethink how to shoot these scenes. The community looks divided between opinions like kissing scenes will not be a thing of the past and ideas like imposing guidelines and rules regarding this. Some even believe those old days when flowers were used to cover the faces of actors to signify that they are kissing will be back.
CINTAA or Cine & TV artiste’s association along with Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television And Radio Artistes are now working towards this issue. They are now compiling some SOPs that will be needed for shooting going further post lockdowns.
Amit Behl, who is the chairperson and senior joint secretary of CINTAA said that they are the oldest actor’s association of the nation and are awaiting guidelines from their parent body i.e. FIA (Federation of international actors). He further added that their guidelines will be approved from WHO and will be the industry standard worldwide until the pandemic is dealt with.
Director Shoojit Sircar, said that sets will now have proper virologists that will be aware of the various carriers, whether direct or indirect. They will also provide their expertise and will ensure that the whole process is safe for everyone involved with it. He added that the Film Guild of India has also issued a few guidelines but he believes that all this is going to be some sort of trial and error approach.
Directors like Shoojit Sircar and Avinash Arun have posted and given an interview about how the process was carried out before and how the pandemic is going to change it all. Professionals in the field took to twitter and Instagram and posted about it.
Apart from shooting intimate scenes, social distancing is another major issue that needs to be dealt with. As over 250 people can be working on a single scene, it becomes almost impossible for shooting to go according to social distancing norms. Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra also expressed concerns on this topic and said it is hard to imagine 250 people working together until a vaccine is found.
