PVR organizes vaccination drive for film industry workers

\Multiplex chain PVR Ltd has bolstered its vaccination drive initiatives by organising on-site camps for film workers registered with the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) in Mumbai.

The idea is to vaccinate the artistes, spot-boys, light-men, setting-workers, junior artistes, make-up artistes, stuntmen, background dancers and other workers employed on film sets and get the industry back on to its feet, the company said.

FWICE is a film trade body dedicated to the cause of cinema employees.

The first vaccination camp is being organized at a PVR property in Juhu, Mumbai for two days this week and will be extended depending upon the response. The on-site registration will be open for walk-ins, free of cost.

On-ground assistance for logistics, manpower support, queue management will be provided by the PVR operation staff while the medical support including registration of workers on the Co-win portal and their vaccination will be organized by the Nanavati Max Super Speciality Staff in the city.

“We appreciate the government’s effort for nationwide vaccination drive and are extending our resources to play our part to vaccinate the marginalized sections of the film industry. Vaccination is key for the industry to bounce back and expanding the drive with free vaccination to the daily wage workers of FWICE is a step in that direction,” Ajay Bijli, chairman and managing director, PVR Ltd, said in a statement.

As far as film industry initiatives go, producers are increasingly looking to vaccinate all employees, crew members of different projects and other workers of the entertainment industry, along with their families, in an attempt to restart production safely and minimise the risk of infection.

Ajay Devgn, Anand Pandit, Karan Johar, Rajkumar Hirani, Bhushan Kumar of T-Series, Balaji Telefilms, Reliance Entertainment, among others have inoculated employees across feature films and web shows, as the industry looks to get back on its feet and shoot with safety protocols to ready content before theatres are allowed to operate fully, expecting huge draw from audiences that have stayed locked up at home for over a year. Live Mint