The makeup team would have one at least for the makeup, touch-up and hairdressing, respectively. “The lightmen team alone is made up of around 10 people.
#HOW MUCH MONEY DO TAMIL SERIAL ACTORS MAKE SERIAL#
Serials that rely on local actors can presumably get on.” Hussain, who plays a supporting role in a Sun TV serial called Roja, doesn’t think it will be easy to make serials with such restrictions. “Wearing a mask when doing a desk job is easier than running around a set with it.” Director Ravi adds, “Cast and crew members are in their hometowns and will have to cross borders to get to Chennai. “We have to shoot with just 20 people in a set that’s typically filled with 50-60 people,” shares Ramanagiri, who adds that the unions have taken it upon themselves to make shooting spaces a safe environment. As the concept itself is for 15 people to stay together in close proximity under one roof, I am not sure if we can have such a show in the current situation.” The government has now relaxed restrictions and permitted the shooting of serials, under certain conditions. “Bigg Boss Tamil, for example, would have begun by June. Whatever we get in the name of income, is distributed with those who are working on the project.” Venkatesh says everyone’s sceptical about starting new projects now. We distributed the amount and produced the proof back to the channel.” He says that producers of Tamil serials are small players compared to their Hindi counterparts. Keeping Rs 15,000 as the upper limit, they sent us the money for our 120 employees. Producer Venkatesh explains: “The channel took an entire list of television technicians and daily wage workers and paid them the average monthly payment that they would get. I was able to manage the first 20 days of lockdown with whatever I had but after that, it has become a struggle.” Vijay TV reportedly allocated ` 75 lakh to 750 members of the FEFSI union in April. “People think serial actors are well-off, but this is the reality. The ones really in trouble, according to me, are supporting actors like me who get around 3-4 thousand rupees per day but are able to get work for only about five days a month,” says Hussain who knows of experienced artistes who find work just one day every month.
Junior artistes get only about 5 rupees a day but they are able to work every day on serials across channels. “Well-known actors make around 15-20 thousand rupees per day and they typically have around 15 days of shooting a month. In this industry, we get paid only per episode telecasted.” Actor AK Hussain, who has been in the industry for more than 25 years as a supporting cast member, has had no such financial cushion. If this were to go on for another two months, then I would be in trouble. “I am glad I saved enough to be able to ride the wave.
He says he’s survived due to some savings. Director Ravi is known for serials such as Pagal Nilavu, and is currently the director of the Colours TV show, Amman. Not anymore.” More than the producers, it’s the cast and crew that is in particular distress. During normal months, we shoot 24 episodes a month to get by. We get a fund from the channel per episode, we keep our margins and produce it. “We have around four thousand active members who are directly involved in Tamil TV content. For these people, this is the only source of income and 90 per cent of them get paid only at the end of each day’s work.”Įxplaining the ground reality in detail, producer Ramanagiri Vasan of serials like Ayutha Ezhuthu, shares that they work on a “first copy basis.
Producer Venkatesh Babu of Global Villagers, the makers of Vijay TV soaps such as Bharathi Kannamma and the game show, Enkitta Modhaade, has never faced such a problem before. While some actors and technicians in the Tamil film industry kept themselves busy with short films and OTT content, those working for these soaps were marooned.
With shooting of mega-serials forced into a halt when the nationwide lockdown was announced in the last week of March, they were stopped from airing barely a week later as channels ran out of content. Televison serials are often mocked for being endless, but right now, the coronavirus-enforced lockdown is starting to vie with it for competition.
0 kommentar(er)
