A LENGTHY INTERMISSION

He misses the chaos of a film shoot and removing the creases from the clothes of Bollywood stars. A dressman by profession, Mohammad Asif Altaf Shaikh, 35, has worked on films such as Go Goa Gone and Fukrey Returns. One 12-hour shift would fetch him Rs 3,000; the thrill of working in Bollywood, though, was priceless. Today, however, he has had to turn to a few stylists to ask for monetary help, but they don’t take his calls. With negligible savings, the father of three has begun tailoring from home and selling packed snacks. “When there’s no work, you have to do something to run the house,” he says.

The Indian entertainment industry seems to be in the middle of one long intermission. Losses have run into thousands of crores, but the worst hit). Things will certainly not be the same as before corona and Shaikh is not alone in his worry that work will be hard to come by. “We are ready to work, but will the artists be ready?” he asks. “I see this continuing for the rest of the year.”