Shooting for film and television in Telangana can resume with immediate effect, as Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has given the green signal with certain COVID-19 guidelines in place.
On Monday, the CM said that the shooting can be held in the state with limited staff and by following guidelines issued by the government from time to time. Post production work will also be permitted from now, on the same lines.
However, the permission is limited only to shooting and not to the theatres reopening. The state government refused to give permission to film theatres to open for the public as the Central guidelines don't allow this.
The permission was given to the entertainment industries after several prominent film personalities, including senior actors Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna, director Rajamouli, various producers and others met the CM recently at Pragathi Bhavan and requested him to give them permission for the shooting and post production work to resume. They had also asked for the theatres to be reopened.
Responding positively to their first demand, the CM asked the officials concerned to prepare the guidelines, as per the official statement released by the Chief Minister's office.
It was also reported that Cinematography Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and other prominent film personalities met and prepared the draft guidelines.
The film personalities have given an assurance that they will conduct the film shooting and post production works with a limited number of people and abide by the guidelines of the state. Based on this, the CM decided to grant permission.
However, there has been no public announcement about the final guidelines that were framed.
With the permission, several projects which are in the shooting and post production stages, will be able to resume soon. Some of the major films include the Ram Charan and Junior NTR starrer RRR, Rana Daggubati's Virata Parvam and the Venkatesh starrer Narappa. Other yet to be titled films of Chiranjeevi and Prabhas are also set to begin now.