With the pandemic, not just protocols for santisation and rules for social distancing came into place, but the extensive use of single-use plastics, masks and PPEs as well. That, in turn, drove up plastic pollution in the country significantly.

Keeping that in mind, producer Deepshikha Deshmukh adopted a sustainable way to enable an optimal use of plastic on the sets of her production and hence, has joined hands with Dr Binish Desai, who is popularly known as India’s ‘Recycle Man’. He has been helping the company recycle its production waste and thus, minimise the carbon footprint.

Deshmukh championed greener sets devoid of single-use plastics as much as possible during the making of their films, Coolie No 1 (2020) and their upcoming release, Bellbottom. Talking about it, she shares, “We wanted to take sustainability on our film sets to a different level and it is now wonderful to have Dr Binish onboard. He is an inspiring social entrepreneur working on industrial waste recycling and management and he will guide us about the various ways we can recycle and upcycle all of our production waste. Be it the construction material that is used to build structures on sets, plastic used, PPE kits, masks or even the sediments of tea and coffee left behind in cups, we will make sure that we make eco-sensitivity a part of our projects.”

Sharing his views, Desai says, “This is the first time I am consulting a film production house. Deepshikha Deshmukh’s vision and commitment to change took me by complete surprise. Waste is generated by irresponsible human consumption and it is our job to sustainably get rid of it. I am very happy to be working with them and I think, together we can initiate a positive shift and start a sustainability movement in the industry.”