by Tellywatch News Desk
Oct 16, 2008, Mumbai
"Production house is my second home," "It is a home away from home." How many times have we heard this refrain from our small screen actors! Of course, we do not refute their claims as we know our actors spend hours and hours under the arc lights day after day. As Karishma Kapoor jocularly put it when questioned her about the small screen vis-a-vis the big screen, "You never really get to sit. The arc lights follow you till you realize it is your master and you are its gilded slave…"
So, the question is, where lies the truth? There are some who, without a blink of the eye, push the actors to the edge and there are some who treat them with kid-gloves. Though, when we asked our actors about the kid-gloves bit, we got looks, which said, "Are you serious…because if you know of any such production house, we would work for free for them!"
The production houses have their own justifications. Nowadays, TV productions do not come cheap at all. It's big money and they feel justified about extracting the maximum from the artists. And, what we heard from our very miffed source about the latest that had taken place at the sets of 'Nach Baliye -4' reminded us of slave labour!
The first episode of 'Nach Baliye-4' was shot at Vrindavan Studio in Mumbai. But, the shoot, which was scheduled to kick-start at 2.00 p.m, found the cameras rolling only at 8.00 p.m. And that's not all, says our well-placed source, on condition of anonymity. "Our favourite jodis were left twiddling their thumbs while Lolo perfected an item number choreographed by Farhah Khan. The shoot went on till the wee hours of the morning and there was no food provided," added a visibly upset jodi, who chose to remain unnamed.
And when we contacted the earlier jodis of Season 1 and 2, they were all praise for SOL production, the makers of 'Nach Baliye' 1 and 2. In unison, they said, "SOL knew how to treat people. Yes, there had been times when we had to shoot into the wee hours, but the production house ensured that the comfort of its participants was taken care of."
Unlike a daily show, reality show is a lot of hard work. At the end of the day, it is a competition and you have to perform! Yes, it's great money, but if you are weighed down by forced idleness and hunger and by the time you perform, the first rays of the sun are peeping out, then tell me, how different is it from bonded labour!"
Naturally, the first episode started off on a rocky note. Someone needs to educate the production house that dictatorship is pass, our source remarked wryly.
NACH BALIYE 4, October 17, 2008 @ 8 pm on Star Plus.
http://www.tellywatch.com/telly_news/nach_baliye_4_bonded_labour/october-16-2008/nach_baliye_4_bonded_labour_dictatorship_.html
