The fate of countless junior artists in the world’s largest entertainment industry hangs in balance due to the pandemic
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 19, 2020)

Of all the communities felled by Coronavirus – migrants, farmers, the urban poor – there is one that we know the least about. Ever since the shooting of films and TV serials has stopped, junior artists, who usually get paid by the day, have been in deep distress. With no work for the last four months, and struggling to feed their families, many of them have been living on dole and ration packets. Some of them have been forced to find alternative employment as delivery boys, security guards or even vegetable vendors to stay afloat.

Veteran junior artist Shahjahan Shaikh is in dire straits. After three decades in the entertainment business, and with a filmography that runs into over a hundred films and TV shows, the 57-year-old is today working as a guard in Powai. Not a security guard, but someone who has to keep an eye on the rickshaws parked in a stand for the night. Watching him share a packet of biscuits with three strays who keep him company through the night, it’s difficult to imagine Shaikh has played a bodyguard, a policeman, a gangster and even a godman in films. “When I was a junior artist, I’d get paid Rs 1,000 daily. But now, I’m struggling to even cobble together Rs 200 every night and I am under severe debt,” says Shaikh, who has been featured in films like Plan, Company and Haseena Parkar, and TV shows like Kumkum and Chandrakanta.

Shaikh’s bank balance was precarious even before the pandemic. In September, his 31-year-old son was killed in a road accident in Chennai, and Shaikh had to borrow money from friends to cover the hospital bills and, later, the final rites. “It’s been 10 months since my son’s death, and those who had helped me out, are now asking me to pay them back,” he says. “We’re in such a desperate state that my wife’s sugar levels have spiked because of the tension.”

The state government’s stringent protocol in these Covid times, mandates that film and TV crews — if they want to resume shooting — must strip down to only 30 per cent of their overall headcount. This doesn’t bode well for junior artists who are often only utilised as fillers in a crowd scene or as a backdrop to the action. While crucial in regular circumstances, they are becoming rapidly redundant in this pandemic. “People don’t even gather in real life so how can we imagine crowd scenes in films and TV?” asks Pappu Lekhraj, the city’s biggest junior artist supplier for films, TV and web series.

According to him, more than 1,500 junior artists used to shoot every day. But with a handful of productions on the floors right now, less than one per cent have any sort of work. “One of our artists got a job as a security guard, with a monthly salary of Rs 10,000. But after working for a bit, he contracted Covid and has blown up his savings on his treatment,” says Lekhraj.

Mukesh Ahuja, who has featured as an extra in over 100 TV shows and films, first tried his hand at selling vegetables in Borivali East. Following several run-ins with BMC officials, who would routinely haul his cart away, Ahuja doesn’t know what to do next. “My bike and mobile are on loan and I haven’t been able to pay the EMI in months,” he says. He had even considered joining a delivery service, but opted out on learning that he would be paid only after 45 days of completing 12-hour shifts. “In my childhood, I used to make a living by selling kites on the street. But now, things are really tight and I don’t know what to do,” says the 42-year-old who last shot for the TV show Nazar, some months ago.

Selling onions and potatoes outside his society didn’t work out for junior artist Sarfaraz Khan either. “[Actor] Manoj Kumar sir would say that if heroes and heroines are the flowers, junior artists make up the rest of the bouquet,” says the 60-year-old wistfully. “We are professionals too. But without work, how are we to feed out families?” Khan has two sons who live with him in Andheri’s Seven Bungalows area. “My brother got me a room but I don’t have money to pay the rent. Sometimes, when our children are sleeping, I feel like consuming poison and ending my life,” says the veteran artist who has worked in Shah Rukh Khan’s My Name is Khan.

For older artists like 59-year-old Mohd Bashir, who goes by the nickname of Vicky, the fear of contracting the infection is limiting their employment options. “I was being considered to be a watchman at Arogya Nidhi Hospital, which is behind Amitabh Bachchan’s house in Juhu. But given my age, I don’t feel confident about working in a hospital flooded with patients,” says Bashir, who lives alone in Vile Parle’s Nehru Nagar chawl ever since his wife’s death. A month into the lockdown, Bashir took up the job of a security guard at a defunct five star hotel in Juhu, but was let go within 25 days when someone was hired for less. “I was promised Rs 12,000 as salary, but the new contractor found someone who was willing to work for Rs 8,000, so they let me go,” says the artist who has featured in over 450 movies, and has shared the screen with Ajay Devgn (Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha), Salman Khan (Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya) and three generations of Deols: Dharmendra, Sunny and his son, Karan.

In the absence of shoots, many are trying their hand at entrepreneurship. Farooq Jani Badshah Khan, a junior artist for 26 years, who lives in Bandra’s Behrampada area, took advantage of the month of Ramzan to sell fruits for iftar. “During Ramzan, everything sells, so I made some money selling chikoos and mangoes,” he says. “But now, the situation is such that I may be reduced to sweeping the road to make a living. I’m prepared to even do that,” says Khan.

He has been in films and shows such as Agneepath, Company, Balika Vadhu and Mere Angne Mein. “During shooting, I would get Rs 900 per day,” he says, and then rattles off the going ‘rates’. “If I had a line of dialogue, it was another Rs 300. If I got some paint on my body (like ‘blood’, for a shootout scene), that was another Rs 300. So on any given day, I would make somewhere between Rs 1,200 to Rs 2,000,” says the 40-year-old, who’s the sole earning member in his family of six.

Ayub Khan, 52, who took to selling vegetables, blames his losses on the fact that his neighbourhood has thinned out. “Most residents in our area were migrants who have left for their villages,” he says. “Those who stayed back have either run up huge debts, or have some other problem. How can they afford vegetables?” he asks. Still, Khan pushes his cart, with potatoes, onions and spinach, around the locality every day in the hope of making a few rupees to feed his family of five children, his wife and elderly mother.

Driven to desperation, some artists are falling prey to scams as well. Ahmed Shakil Khan, who last shot for the Sanjay Dutt and Ranbir Kapoor starrer Shamshera at Kamalistan Studios, says he was approached by an agent for the job of a security guard at a tony club in Khar. The agent promised him a monthly salary of Rs 18,000, but asked him to first pay Rs 800 for the uniform that he would need to wear on the job. Luckily for him, Khan’s sixth sense kicked in and he refused the offer. “I joined a food delivery service instead, but even after slogging for 10 hours, I barely make Rs 400 because very few people are ordering in now,” says the 34-year-old who has acted in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

Some junior artists are even working two jobs just to meet their household expenses. Nadim Nasir Shaikh, who has been in the entertainment profession for 22 years, and will be seen in Salman Khan’s Radhe, has been pulling 12-hour night shifts as a security guard in Goregaon. “I am looking for some work during the day as well, otherwise my family won’t be able to survive,” says the 41-year-old. He hasn’t been able to pay his rent for the last five months and has run up a debt of Rs 50,000 which he’s not sure if he can pay back. For those who already have financial liabilities, the pandemic has pushed them to the brink.

Nikki Rajvir Dulgach, 50, who has been an extra for 15 years, has had to borrow money from friends and local moneylenders to pay off her home loan. “I could pay my EMIs on time when I had work. But now our bank balance is almost zero and the bills have been piling up,” says the Mira Road resident whose husband, Rajbir Dulgach, is also a junior artist. “At this rate, we will have to sell the house, since we barely have enough to buy food.”

In troubled times, one hopes to lean on family. But for Dhanalaxmi Kapadia, there is no such relief. The 64-year-old junior artist’s older son, who is a dancer, had a heart attack two years ago that put him out of commission. Her younger son, who is a driver, is currently out of a job too. “The bank doesn’t extend loans to us and the shops don’t give us ration on credit since we are daily wagers,” says Kapadia, who began her career with Raj Kapoor’s Bobby and has since worked in films like Refugee, Phata Poster Nikla Hero and Angrezi Medium.

But not everyone is living hand-tomouth. Some artists are dipping into their reserves and working towards building alternative careers. Nishith Bhatia, who played gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Shootout At Lokhandwala, has been a junior artist for 20 years. He says that he had tried his hand at civil and development jobs as a side hustle before the lockdown. “I had decided to pick a second line of work in case films don’t work out. You must have a backup plan so that you don’t starve,” says the 49-year-old, who has been in Khakee, Babul, Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap and Bluffmaster. He says he’s okay without work for now, but perhaps not for long.

With the number of Covid-19 cases on the rise across the country, there’s no clarity on when shoots will resume in full strength. Or whether — even when they do — junior artists will be called upon in their usual strength.

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta, who shot with over 1,000 extras for his forthcoming series on stockbroker Harshad Mehta earlier this year, feels that their contribution to a project cannot be discounted. “The industry treats them like cattle. We have failed to treat our entire workforce with respect and dignity,” says Mehta. “When I shot Simran in the USA, I saw how respectfully the background actors are treated.” Mehta feels that while VFX may be able to recreate crowd scenes, “it would be an expensive option, if not a creative compromise”. “Even then, it would only work for dummy parts. After all, human beings are human beings, and they’re irreplaceable.”

Neha Maheshwri (BOMBAY TIMES; June 18, 2020)

Like most of us, actress Nupur Alankar had saved penny by penny, over the years, thinking that it would help her tide through rainy days. However, today, even with a healthy ‘bank balance’, she is grappling with acute financial distress. So much so, she can’t afford medical intervention for her mother, who is suffering from multiple health complications, including Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD), rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and pulmonary hypertension.

Nupur’s life turned upside down following the Punjab & Maharashtra Co-Operative (PMC) Bank collapse last year. Her family’s accounts, including her own, were frozen. To make ends meet, she sold off her jewellery and also borrowed money from her friends and relatives. She tells BT, “My mother had a mild heart attack in 2018. She couldn’t take the PMC collapse and suffered three more attacks on October 8, 13 and December 8, last year. However, she refused to be hospitalised, fearing that it would be a costly affair. I started practising alternative therapies as a secondary source of income, but it stopped due to the Coronavirus pandemic. By then, we had exhausted all our savings. My husband (Alankar Srivastava) and I had no choice but to rent out our flat for extra money and shift with our respective parents. However, the lockdown worsened my financial woes as my tenant vacated the flat. I had to borrow money to repay her down payment.”

Friends and members from the fraternity did help, but eventually, she had to explore other options. She shares, “Help poured in from many friends, but the medical and other expenses kept rising. Then came a point where I started approaching various NGOs for free medicines. Soon, I realised that things had further spiralled out of control. That’s when I posted the details regarding my mother’s health complications on a crowdfunding platform. I was apprehensive initially, but my friend, actress Rajeshwari Sachdev, convinced me to do it for the sake of my mother. I have no shame in asking people for money, it’s for my mother’s treatment. I am especially grateful to Akshay Kumar, Renuka Shahane, Ayub Khan, Hetal Parmar, Darshan Jariwala, Manoj Joshi and CINTAA for helping me.”

However, the struggle is not over yet. Nupur says, “My mother can’t be hospitalised because of her flailing health, which makes her more susceptible to the novel Coronavirus. For now, we will have to make do with whatever medical aid we can arrange for her at home.”
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Kavita Awaasthi (HINDUSTAN TIMES; June 18, 2020)

On June 9, actor Renuka Shahane had, in a Facebook post, sought financial help for her friend, actor Nupur Alankar. A few days later, they found an “angel” in actor Akshay Kumar.

“An angel from our film industry has helped Nupur…At a time when there is this raging debate about people not being there for each other, this angel has proved that there are gems like him who will stand by someone in need…@akshaykumar ji A man with a heart of pure, unadulterated gold,” Shahane tweeted.

Alankar was in need of ₹6,00,000 for her mum’s treatment, and her social media appeal caught Shahane’s attention. “I feel Akshay sir is bhagwan ka roop,” Alankar continues, “He doesn’t know me, yet he came to my aid. I don’t have words to express how grateful I am. He didn’t ask for any papers or test reports; he transferred more than what I needed to my mother’s account. I can never thank him enough.”

CINTAA members call on Akshay Kumar and Sajid Nadiadwala for financial help
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; May 28, 2020)

Superstar Akshay Kumar has sprung into action again to help those affected by the pandemic. After a series of sizeable donations, the actor has come to the rescue of daily-wage workers who are struggling to stay afloat amidst the Coronavirus lockdown. Kumar has helped the members of Cine & TV Artistes Association (CINTAA) by donating Rs 45 lakh.

"We are grateful to Akshay for helping in such trying times," said Amit Behl, senior joint secretary, CINTAA. He added, "The initiative was taken up by executive committee member and actor Ayub Khan. He roped in Jaaved Jaaferi to help connect with Sajid Nadiadwala and Akshay Kumar. Without any delay, Akshay requested for the list of our members. We have been receiving messages of gratitude from the 1,500 daily wagers he helped."

Kumar and Nadiadwala transferred Rs 3000 into every member's bank account. "They have assured us that they will do whatever is needed to help the members," said Behl.