Prashant Singh (HINDUSTAN TIMES; August 7, 2020)

Bollywood hasn’t been at work since March-end, when the nationwide Coronavirus lockdown was enforced. But slowly, things are changing. While actor Akshay Kumar is set to start shooting for Bellbottom in the UK, others are likely to follow suit from September onward with safety norms in place, one such being working with smaller units.

Director Anees Bazmee says it’s “not going to be easy.” “Pruning the crew size and working with a small-ish team is going to be a huge challenge. How do you do it? Where do you start? Nowadays, even actors come with a big entourage,” he says, while recalling how for the shoot of Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha (1998), a unit of just 40-45 people — including actors, their teams and the crew — had travelled to Switzerland.

“Woh zamaana hi kuch aur tha,” Bazmee says, adding, “We all managed to work beautifully with a smaller team. But things are different now. At any given point, there are so many people on the set. Also, with newer technology and ambitious storytelling style, there’s no option but to have more people on the set.” He explains, “For instance, earlier, if we would have three people — including the DoP — with the camera, we now have three to four cameras and five to six people with each one of them.”

However, Bazmee admits that ensuring a smaller unit is “going to affect a lot of people badly.” “If you have to retain just 65 out of 200 technicians, imagine how many of them would have no work. Since the real economic impact of the lockdown will be felt even more in the coming months, things will become extremely difficult. But, you have to adhere to the guidelines,” says the filmmaker, who will restart work on his next, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, later this year.