All 4 rainy day:Akela

All for a rainy day

The makers of CID and Akela love to shoot entire episodes during the rains and also scout for actors who comply

Sapana Patil Poojary

During the incessant downpour, by and large, you'll find productions houses shooting indoors. However, there's one production house that prefers to do exactly the opposite.

Instead of hunting for indoor locations, Fireworks Pvt Ltd (makers of the serial CID and Akela) actually looks for wide open-air spaces where they can shoot rain sequences. They also cast actors who are willing to get drenched for a shoot!

Yash Patnaik, business head, Fireworks Pvt Ltd, says, "B P Singh, the producer-director of CID and Akela loves the rains and so does Shivaji Satam (the lead actor in CID). Hence, every year we shoot at least one story entirely in the rains. The first time we did so was eight years ago and we have continued with this tradition ever since. It has become a custom now. Even the channel eagerly waits for our rain episodes."

The team usually shoots at the Borivali National Park as it provides a lush green backdrop to shoot the rain sequences. "We have begun to enjoy shooting in the rain. So while casting, we ensure that the actors are open to getting soaked in the rain," says Patnaik.

Thus far, Fireworks has been shooting in the rain for CID. "But this year we shot the second episode of Akela in the rains. This happened by chance. We were to shoot last week when the torrential rains started and our shoot was held up. Eventually, we decided to shoot in the rains. And the scenes have turned out very well," says Patnaik. "One must know how to shoot in the rains to get the right effect on screen. If it's a really good shot, one can skip the colour correction process during post-production. Nevertheless, shooting in the rains is tough. There is the risk of the camera emitting electric current. So, we have to take care of various technical factors. For instance, instead of connecting our cameras to electric points, we operate on batteries