Coronavirus: The Serial Killer

The coronavirus-caused lockdown has snatched the livelihoods of many cast and crew members of television serials. Here, directors, producers and actors of Tamil soaps talk to us about what this means for their business

-  Gopinath Rajendran

Televison serials are often mocked for being endless, but right now, the coronavirus-enforced lockdown is starting to vie with it for competition. 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. 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.

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. “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.” Explaining the ground reality in detail, producer Ramanagiri Vasan of serials like Ayutha Ezhuthu, shares that they work on a “first copy basis. We get a fund from the channel per episode, we keep our margins and produce it. During normal months, we shoot 24 episodes a month to get by. Not anymore.”

More than the producers, it’s the cast and crew that is in particular distress. Director Ravi is known for serials such as Pagal Nilavu, and is currently the director of the Colours TV show, Amman. He says he’s survived due to some savings. “I am glad I saved enough to be able to ride the wave. If this were to go on for another two months, then I would be in trouble. In this industry, we get paid only per episode telecasted.”