MUMBAI: Mumbai’s content producers were in for a shock. When they reached the gates of Film City this morning, they found them shut.  Until late last evening, Film City officials were adamant that they would keep the government-owned location open till 19 March, until they received official notice from the authorities. Which they apparently did late last night or early this morning in the wake of the Sars-CoV-2 virus scare.

The producers’ body – the IFTPC – also got instructions from Maharashtra government officials that its members need to wind up their shoots as soon as possible – that is by tonight.

However, in different shoot locations in Mumbai,  Bombay Municipal Corporation representatives went around  post lunch demanding that shootings be wound up immediately.  And they were given no option but to comply.

It may be recalled that the various trade and craft unions had announced that they had agreed to cease all production by 19 March, and until the end of the month.

Says a producer: “We were all working to shoot over time so that we could meet our deadlines with the broadcasters. Now we don’t know, what we will do. We will have to package  good episodes together using sharp edits.”

How broadcasters will deal with this sudden turn of events with some episodes possibly being left incomplete, is to be seen. The good news for them is that since many Mumbai-kars are going to be home bound until the tide of the CoViD 2019 bad news recedes, a lot of television is going to be consumed.

The government, on its part, is taking the extreme steps as it is hardpressed to halt the spread of CoVid-2019, which has attained pandemic status the world over.