The coronavirus lockdown has brought the whole entertainment industry to standstill and with permission from TN government, post-production work is going on in full swing. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu film producers council has requested the Tamil Nadu Government to grant permission to resume shooting activities.

Members from Tamil film producers including T Siva, Manobala, Thenappan, Satishkumar, Dhananjayan, RK Suresh, Suresh Kamatchi, and Panchu Subbu met Kadambur Raju, the Minister of Information and Publicity today, and requested him to grant permission to resume the shoot of nearly 50 films that have been affected due to the Government imposed lockdown in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic.

The letter to the government reads, "Around 600 crores of investment have been locked in these films and the livelihood of the producers has been badly affected. Similar to other industries which have been permitted to operate, we request the government to allow permission to resume shooting activities with certain restrictions. We will follow the necessary safety measures and guidelines imposed by the government."

They have asked the Government to allow 50% of workers on the shooting spot (Maximum 100 per day) and promised to follow the necessary guidelines including social distancing and proper sanitization.

The producers have only asked the Government to permit films that were already commenced because they have invested nearly 600 crore rupees in these projects. The Protection team says that if the Government gives permission, nearly 10,000 workers will be benefited.

Producers say 84 films could release between July and October if everything goes as per plan, which includes six films of GV Prakash, five films of Sibiraj and four films of Prabhu Dheva! Sorces say if movie theatres couldn't accommodate flood of movie releases at the same time, mostly they will directly release in OTT. But there is no clarity on when would theatres be opened. Producers think in a month of time they will have clarity on the future situation.