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MUMBAI:
7 November will go down in history as the night when India's
television industry began the process of shutting down production.
Following
a meeting of the core committee of producers under the Association
of Motion Pictures and Television Programme Producers of India
(AMPTPP), it was decided that weekday general entertainment
TV show producers would cease production or set construction
from midnight.
Producers of Hindi general entertainment shows which were
to be shown over this weekend could, however, continue to
film until Sunday midnight, was the message sent out to the
community.
"From
Monday onwards, TV viewers will have to make do with a slate
consisting of programming re-runs," says an industry
observer. The only exception to this stand from the industry
is Big Boss on Colors, in which participants have been holed
up in a house, which will continue filming till the show ends
on 22 November.
"We
have informed our producers to stop filming from tonight,"
said the business head of a leading general entertainment
channel.
A
cross section of producers Indiantelevision.com correspondents
spoke to agreed that they would follow the industry in the
shutdown plan.
According
to sources close to the situation, the producers had given
the workers' federation till 3.30 pm this evening to revert.
But that did not happen. And hence broadcasters and producers
took the hard stance, following a long meeting in the evening.
Clearly,
it will be interesting to see how this soap opera unravels.
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