IMPPA APPEALS IN HIGH COURT TO REMOVE AGE LIMIT RESTRICTIONS FROM FILM SET

Jyothi Venkatesh

Anil Nagrath, Sec, IMPPA has, for and on behalf President T.P. Aggarwal, IMPPA, in a petition to the Bombay High Court, against the Maharashtra government , through Advocate Ashok Saraogi, requested them to quash the restrictions imposed on individuals who are 65 years of age and above from shooting and participating in any shooting-related work.The guidelines have been issued by the state government in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, which left film and television shootings stalled for over three months. Now shoots have resumed slowly and steadily, albeit with a tight set of rules but due to the restriction imposed by the Government all persons aged 65 and above have been deprived of their livelihood."As per the list available with the petitioner, there are thousands of people aged above 65 years who were participating in shooting of programmes prior to the lockdown. The shootings of such films and programmes have been left in between due to non-availability of such people," the petition reads.

IMPPA President T P Aggarwal states that for all senior producers, directors, actors and technicians the creative medium is the only source of income and the guideline was not practical and was not fair as in no other profession this condition was imposed. After sending request many times, we had to move to High Court for demanding the rights of earning one’s livelihood for these senior people from the fraternity.The IMPPA petition cites how the Karnataka High Court had been specifically informed by the Central Government that the 65 years and more individuals had all the rights to carry out their work and the said restriction was only an advisory to individuals aged 65 and above and below 10 years of age to stay at home. It was not, hence, a binding order and every individual had the right to work for his livelihood and the Government could not impose such regulations.