As we revisit the day the lockdown was promulgated, celebs share how the dark times did not overshadow creativity
Sheetal
Three years back, on this day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the first nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19. As the lockdown day arrives this Saturday, directors and actors talk about how the time still inspired creativity.
Lesson for human race
“I found the idea of making Bheed in black and white quite apt. One cannot show a tragedy in colour. I felt that this was about a tragedy that affected not just India, but the entire world. This human race that dreams of controlling nature and the whole universe was forced to stop by this invisible Coronavirus. This was such a huge thing.” Ashutosh Rana, actor in Bheed
Touching a chord
“One of the scenes that is close to my heart is when my co-star Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, who plays my wife (migrant worker), was receiving food, and people were taking Her photos. The depiction of a human being treated like animal and taking much away from the act of kindness was quite authentic as well as disturbing. Abhishek Banerjee, Actor in Unpaused
Journalist-turned-filmmaker Vinod Kapri released his documentary 1232 KMS on Disney+Hotstar in 2021. He was quick to pack a working camera with an assistant to record seven migrant workers, who walked or cycled from Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh to their hometown in Saharsa district of Bihar. After watching the documentary, composer Vishal Bhardwaj supported the cause ‘lyrically and musically’, and gave two songs Marenge Toh Wahin Jaakar and O Re Bidesiya, while Gulzar penned the lyrics. Not just that, Unpaused, an anthology series on Prime Video, and Zee 5 film India Lockdown had actors Abhishek Banerjee and Parteik Babbar portray the characters of daily wagers. A week ago, Zwigato saw comedian Kapil Sharma play a factory worker, who, post the lockdown, was forced to work as a food delivery agent for an app.
Meanwhile, another film on the same subject, Bheed, by Anubhav Sinha, is releasing today. Actor Abhishek Banerjee, who acted in Unpaused, shares, “As artistes, it was very difficult for us as we didn’t know how to express ourselves. Thankfully, Prime Video came up with wonderful idea of producing this anthology, Unpaused.”
Unique take
Many works in 2020, such as comedy series, Wakaalat From Home, thriller The Gone Game or rom-coms Jal Wayu Towers (Punjabi) and A Viral Wedding have brought something unique to the table. India Lockdown director Madhur Bhandarkar shares, “I like to research on new topics and then make films on them. The same process went in for India lockdown wherein four parallel stories — of a migrant worker couple, pilot, elderly man and a sex worker — are in play with the common background of the lockdown.”
Anthology series like Social Distance and short films Home Stories and Puthum Pudhu Kaalai (Malayalam) were also the by-products of the lockdown. Bheed is unique in its approach, as it compares Covid-19 to Partition. Actor Gulshan Deviah and Richa Chaddha’s futuristic pandemic-dating in Glitch, one of the stories from Unpaused, falls in the same category. In fact, the series was an instant hit as another season titled Unpaused: Naya Safar has been released.
