It’s slack season for Mumbai studios
BLAME IT ON THE SUMMER HEAT, SAY FILMFOLK

By MSM Desai
Between April and June, all producers prefer to finish location shootings in cooler locales, either in India or abroad. To beat the heat, the stars readily give their dates for shoots in cooler climes. In the last one year, Hyderabad has now developed as a major filmmaking centre, because the studios there offer far more facilities dr film shoots. This leads to shootings of three to five Hindi films at any given moment in Hyderabad studios.

Hyderabad’s gain has been Mumbai loss, and in fact, there has been a 40 per cent drop in bookings of studio floors in Mumbai.
Madhusudhan, president of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees, says there is no cause for alarm, as far as work for Mumbai’s cine employees is concerned. Even if there is a slackness in the shooting of feature films, artistes and technicians are engaged in the shooting of television serials and programmes.

Even Neena Tolaram Jalan, senior vice-president of the Association of Motion Picture Studios, admitted there was a slackness in the shooting of feature films but attributed the reason as seasonal. "This is outdoor season. Producers want to do their location shooting between April and June so that they can go off to cooler places," she says.

Asked whether the slackness is due to many producers shifting their shoots to Hyderabad, Neena Jalan said there were several reasons why producers choose Hyderabad. "Firstly, the big studios like Ramoji Rao’s offer a lot of facilities to the Hindi producers. Some producers prefer to shoot there also because the artistes give them their undivided time, unlike in Mumbai, where they are constantly distracted. Besides, the labour there is also cheaper than in Mumbai."

Surinder Kapoor, president of the Film Producers Guild of India, whose son Boney Kapoor has shot most of his films in Hyderabad, says producers prefer Hyderabad because they shoot in peace, and artistes give them their full attention.

Govind Swaroop, secretary in the ministry of cultural affairs, government of Maharashtra, admits there is little shooting in Mumbai these days, because producers prefer to go to the hill stations for location shoots. "It’s not true that the producers are all moving to Hyderabad as some people assume. Film City has enough bookings, thanks to the television serials. Hyderabad studios may be offering more facilities, but they’re charging three times the Film City rates."