Mosquitoe bytes

From ordinary people to T.V stars, dengue has made its presence felt everywhere. Now the latest victim being the storylines! After two of T.V's high profile brigade, Smriti Iraani and Rajshri Thakur, were diagnosed positive, the producers had to adjust new plots in the stories. Does this sound like doom for programming?

Apart from the personal loss, the production house suffers monetarily as well as on the creative front. Schedules go awry; the redrafted tracks have to be gripping enough for the shows to maintain their TRPs.

Riya V Anandwala talks to a few producers, directors, creative heads and actors who speak about the precautions undertaken and dealing with disturbed schedules!

Nivedita Basu- Deputy Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms

(she was da one in green remember wen eij had his arm round anita)

We haven't taken any special precaution as we have never faced any case of dengue. I got to know about Smriti yesterday and that too she didn't get it from our sets. We have sweepers cleaning 24x7, fumigation machines to get rid of the mosquitoes in the evening and nights. Food has never been a problem; we take care of the water provided. As of now no other precautions have been taken, we are just maintaining the old ones!

In a show like Kyunki, even if Smriti is not available, we can play around with the other stars, so that's not an issue at all. Otherwise, no star has ever fallen pray to this epidemic.

Sanjay Upadhyay- Director, Kumkum

We treat our sets as our home! We keep them very clean and also, we give a lot of importance to hygiene on the sets. We nearly spend 14 to 15 hours there, also, a few of the actors/artistes go in for a catnap so hygiene is of utmost importance.

Daily soaps along with being hectic have a certain amount of flexibility also! It's not an unusual occurrence, and if any of our stars get affected by dengue we can always focus on other characters. Certainly there is instability in the schedule, but it is not a very difficult deal to handle it. We can manage the creative dent.

Jamnadas Majethia-Producer, Hats Off

Right from the beginning we have mineral water and water purifiers on the sets for our actors as well as technicians. Every second month we have pest control doing the rounds of our sets. We also have facilities to get rid of the mosquitoes and flies which are on the hitlist currently. But in the case of Resham Dankh it becomes a major problem as we shoot at Madh Island. I had called for a meeting with the local committee there lately, and we are trying to fix this problem.

Schedules definitely get disturbed. Fortunately, my cast and crew have not been affected by dengue yet, but lately I was hit by this epidemic. We are taking ultimate care so that our schedules don't go haywire and also actors are safe. I say, "Ek Macchar daily soap ko kharab kar deta hain!"

Sunjoy Wadhwa-Producer, Sphere Origins

Keeping this epidemic in mind the major precaution which we undertake is to maintain our environment. We try and keep it as clean as possible. We take certain measures to keep the flies and mosquitoes away too.

On the schedule front, we do have a bit of a problem, but not to a very great extent. We bring out interesting angles and build that. And also, our TRPs don't come crashing down.

Kinnari Mehta-Producer, Jai Mehta Productions

We do pest control once a fortnight and have mosquito repellents burnt in the evenings, the prime time for the flies to invade our sets. Our caterers are not those canteenwala's they have a lot of health food, so for those who binge on boiled food, their problem is solved!

The tracks which are built up after redrafting the script are definitely not in the favour of the show, but we are left with no other option.

Source: telly chakkar