'Confinement' music videos, short movies trend amidst lockdown

With all his concerts and outdoor video shoots put off indefinitely, playback singer Debojit Saha is spending sleepless nights these days. The winner of the Zee TV singing reality show, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005 has switched to making “confinement” videos, lending the term “in-house production” an altogether different meaning.

“To ensure quietness, I shoot my videos late in the night when everyone goes off to sleep. It takes four to five hours to record a video song which I upload on my YouTube channel,” Saha said.

The former ‘Voice of India‘ winner is not the only one trying out the production-from-home alternative in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak halting all outdoor activities related to performing arts.

Saha said Zee TV, which is planning to air a special episode either on May 9 or 10 to commemorate Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’s completion of 25 years, has discussed with him the shooting of video songs from his Mumbai home for the silver jubilee program.

Zee TV, however, has not yet gone public with its plan.

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According to TellyChakkar, an online publication that exclusively covers Indian Television and Media business, Zee TV is apparently planning to air the special episode on May 9. Quoting sources it reported that the makers and the channel are in talks about the same.

Saha said, from the preliminary talks he had with the channel it seemed the entire episode would be shot from home. “But we have to wait and see because I am not privy to their entire plan. I just had an initial discussion about me contributing video songs shot from the confinement of my house” he added.

The audience might have to wait to see how the Zee TV puts together the special program on the show that gave India many of its singing greats, including Sonu Nigam.

One of the first of its kind experiences was the ‘Family’, a short movie virtually directed by Prasoon Pandey to create awareness about COVID-19. Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, and other Bollywood and regional-film stars featured in the movie staying in their respective homes.

The movie was premiered across the Sony Network.

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Pandey’s multi-starrer soon inspired a similar genre movie in Bengali titled the Jhar theme jabe ekdin (the storm will eventually stop).

Now, a short film series in Bengali called ‘Lockdown Shorts‘ has been released with the movies being “shot from home”, “acting from home” and “directed from home.”  The first film in the series ‘Hing’ stars Bengali actress Aparajita Auddy and Manali Manisha Dey.

It’s a content-driven short film dealing with the lockdown and is shot entirely from the precincts of home.

A Guwahati based production house also announced a short film competition to encourage people to stay indoors with the prime condition being “no outdoor shooting.”

“The idea is to keep the people engaged inside their home and also to encourage some positive works in the midst of lockdown. We will be more than happy to unearth some hidden talents through this initiative. I know this is not very big, but definitely a start towards positivity,” said Kangkan Deka, an independent filmmaker, and proprietor of Kernel film production, organiser of the competition.

The maximum duration of the movies should be of 15 minutes and made entirely within the home.

(With inputs from Abdul Gani in Guwahati)