Bollywood appeals to Chief Minister as Maharahstra lockdown looms

As the specter of a Maharashtra lockdown looms with a spike in COVID-19 circumstances within the Indian state, Bollywood representatives are interesting to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to save lots of the trade, “which is already in shambles”.

The Indian Movie and TV Administrators Affiliation has posted a letter on social media on behalf of the Federation of Western India Cine Workers, interesting to Thackeray to not take such a drastic step at a time when Bollywood is simply simply discovering its ft.

Chief Advisor of FWIC Ashoke Pandit shared a duplicate of the letter, whereas writing: “@fwicemum urges and requests Hon’ble CM Ji not to impose complete lockdown as it will create a lot of fear, panic in the industry which is already in shambles. We ensure the Govt. of Maharashtra of taking full precautions as per its SOPs & guidelines.”

The letter particulars what a yr of lockdown has accomplished to the leisure trade in Mumbai, which employs 1000's of employees each day.

“…On behalf of scores of actors, workers, technicians of the entire media and entertainment industry, we hereby urge the government not to impose any more lockdown as it has already harmed the economy of the entertainment industry earlier and people are trying to recover from the losses incurred due to the earlier lockdown,” the letter reads.

The letter continues: “One complete yr had handed with no work and no earnings, distressed lives and no meals, hunger-stricken households and disadvantaged youngsters. It was a really dreadful and sorry state of people that have been left alone to battle their very own battles of starvation and poverty with completely no support from any Authorities physique (Neither State nor Central).

“The community of producers and top actors, actresses who then came together to the rescue of the daily wage earners of the media and entertainment industry and contributed at large to provide daily bread to these sole earners of families. Now the situation may even go worse as these communities of producers, actors and actresses who helped our brethren are themselves not in a position to provide any further aid to these daily wage workers and technicians.”

On Friday, Thackeray warned a brand new lockdown may are available two days following consultations with consultants and political leaders. Maharashtra yesterday reported 47,827 new COVID-19 circumstances, the best because the pandemic started final yr. With 202 sufferers dying on Friday, the state’s case fatality ratio has reached 1.91 per cent.

Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt is the most recent celeb to be contaminated by the coronavirus. Whereas the actress stays in isolation at house, she joins a protracted listing of celebrities who've turned up optimistic in current weeks ever because the trade has reopened for enterprise.

Bhatt’s actor-boyfriend Ranbir Kapoor had examined optimistic for the coronavirus final month, together with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the director of her movie ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’.

Different actors who lately examined optimistic embody, Fatima Sana Sheikh, Paresh Rawal, Kartik Aaryan, Manoj Bajpayee, R Madhavan, Kriti Sanon and Rohit Saraf.

Earlier, actors Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Arjun Kapoor, Malaika Arora, Genelia D’Souza, Sunny Deol and others have been contaminated with the virus.