Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced a series of relaxations for the television and film industries after meeting stakeholders at Nabanna.

The chief minister allowed shooting of television reality shows but with the precondition of production without the audience. “We are allowing shooting of non-fictional shows for television where a total of 40 people, including artists, technicians and other production persons, can be present. There won’t be audience on the sets.”

Prior to this, the government had in early June allowed shooting of fictional shows with the presence of 35 people at a time.

Bengal is the only state where shooting of television shows and films have started and this can be a wonderful opportunity for the industry to invite production units from other states to undertake shooting of shows and films here, the chief minister said.

Outdoor shooting of films can be done in isolated places where gathering of a large number of people can be avoided, she said.

Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said that permission from local authorities would be required to carry out outdoor shooting of films.

For such permissions, interested units can write to the city’s police commissioner, the chief minister said. If any unit wants to go for shooting outside Calcutta, it can send letters to DGP Virendra, or ADG (law and order) Gyanwant Singh.

She announced to set up a committee, comprising government officials and film personalities like Parambrata Chatterjee, to prepare a guideline to carry out shooting for web platforms.

Parambrata Chatterjee Telegraph picture

The chief minister announced her decision to extend assistance to single screen cinemas, which were damaged by Cyclone Amphan. A proposal has been put forward to help such halls as they have been suffering because of the lockdown.

“I cannot promise exemption of electricity bills as we need to give huge subsidies to the power sector. We can help the halls, which suffered damage during Amphan,” the chief minister said.

A government skill development centre will be turned into a grooming centre for budding television and film artists, she said.

The programme to observe the birth anniversary of Mahanayak Uttam Kumar on July 24 will be trimmed this year because of the pandemic, she said.

The government used to organise a programme to observe the day by giving away awards to film and television personalities.

This year, the birth anniversary will be observed through a small programme and awards will be given during the Calcutta Film Festival in November, the chief minister said.

“This year, we could not hold the programme to give Banga Bhusan and Banga Bibhusan awards. The awards (for film and television personalities) will be given during the (Calcutta) film festival,” she said.