Coronavirus turns ‘serial’ killer as production halted

Stuck indoors by the 21-day lockdown, lakhs of people had hoped to stay hooked to their favourite teleserials. But the COVID-19 pandemic has turned out to be a 'serial' killer, forcing tele-serial producers to temporarily halt shooting of their episodes. Having run out of stock, re-runs of old episodes are now on.

Dozens of Kannada serials in multiple entertainment channels have been taken off air. The trend is the same for Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi serials. Particularly hit are production houses that do not shoot episodes at least 15 days in advance. “Episodes are sometimes shot just a day before screening,” a seasoned serial actor told DH.

The TRP battle is hard among entertainment channels, and the fear of losing viewership permanently could get tricky when the gap is too long.

Re-runs could get boring. “That is true, but channels have now come up with a plan to show the past episodes as a recap. This way, when the shooting resumes, the audience will not lose track of the story,” explained Chaitra Rao Sachin, who has worked in Kannada serials Nagakannike, Sarayoo and Vidya Vinayaka.

Question of livelihood

While multiple options are explored to keep viewers engaged, the shooting halt has become a question of livelihood for many artistes and assistants, who are essentially daily wagers. “We won’t be getting any money. So, it would be a big loss for us. Producers, too, depend on monthly salaries paid by the houses. Their payments would be stalled as well.”

Even after the lockdown is suspended and shootings resume, new episodes are likely to take time to appear on screen. “We would need at least 10 days after shooting to get about two to three episodes ready. Dubbing, editing and other post-production processes need time,” said T N Seetharam, director of the serial Magalu Janaki on Colors Super channel.

Each episode is of a duration of 23 minutes and 30 seconds, allowing time for six minutes of advertisements. “Many opt for OTP streaming platforms. People who follow the serial understand the issue. Even if we are into the 300th episode, they will know what happened in the 57th,” he noted, dispelling concerns of losing viewership due to a gap.