After a lot of planning and precautionary measures in place, the team of Mumbai Saga rebooted the shoot of the film with a song sequence last week. During the lockdown, Emraan Hashmi, one of the film’s leading men, had spoken about how the Coronavirus pandemic has affected the lives of people all over. The actor, who has now stepped out to work and shot for a few days, shares his thoughts with BT about getting accustomed to the new normal, which includes smaller crews, people sporting PPE suits, masks and face shields, using sanitiser frequently and maintaining social distance.

“My family was a bit concerned when I told them about going back to shoot. I wasn’t as worried, but of course, it all plays on your mind as you can’t compartmentalise things. It is a situation that we have not tackled before. We are just about stepping back into our work space again after a gap of over six months. If you get too complacent, you could mess up everything, and if you are on guard and take the necessary precautions, you can go a long way,” Emraan says.

Talking about getting back on the sets, Emraan Hashmi says, “After work, I return to a family that includes elders. I don’t want to contract something and pass it on to any of them. We are all taking baby steps to adjust to the new normal. As time goes by, we will learn more and find out ways to get around things. The sense that I get when I step out or interact with people is that they are either paranoid or completely carefree as if the infection has vanished. People walk on the streets without masks like the pandemic never happened, and that is alarming and a bit concerning. We’re at a stage where things might escalate easily.”

When asked about the safety measures he followed when he was at work, Emraan says, “I had the mask on and my sanitiser handy at all times. Once, it so happened that I touched my face while I was on the set without the mask. We invariably tend to do that, and I got so scared. In seconds, I felt like, ‘What did I just do!’ These are habits that we have picked up, but now we have to be careful and take care of ourselves if we want to protect others who matter to us. I remember when the lockdown was easing out, and I saw people with masks, it had such an apocalyptic feel to it as if I was in a sci-fi film.”

Mumbai Saga had rolled out a year ago, in the pre-pandemic era. Remind Emraan about it, and he says, “I am glad that John (Abraham) and I don’t have action scenes left to be filmed. If we were shooting those now, we would have been breathing in each other’s faces, and that would have complicated things. Thankfully, what we have shot, and are left to shoot, are scenes where we can maintain ample social distance. In fact, John has an action scene, but it’s being shot with absolute precaution.”