A relief fund for daily wage earners impacted by the shutdown of film, television and web productions due to the coronavirus pandemic has been set up by the Producers Guild of India (GUILD).

A statement was shared on Twitter by Siddharth Roy Kapur, president of the GUILD where he urged those in the film fraternity to contribute to the fund in order to “minimize the disruption in the lives of our valued colleagues”.

“In the light of the complete shutdown of all production-related activity for the foreseeable future due to the Covid-19 outbreak, there is bound to be a significant impact on the lives and livelihoods of daily wage earners in the industry,” the statement read.

“The Producers Guild of India has decided to set up a Relief Fund to help support those affected by the shutdown. We would encourage the entire fraternity to contribute to the fund to minimize the disruption in the lives of our valued colleagues and associates in this difficult time,” Kapur said in the statement.

 

Producers Guild of India sets up Relief Fund for workers affected by production shutdown owing to the COVID-19 epidemic-Official Statement#SiddharthRoyKapur @kulmeetmakkar #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/OGARZbDWxl

 

— producersguildindia (@producers_guild) March 17, 2020

Earlier, filmmakers Sudhir Mishra, Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap had raised concerns about how the shutdown would impact the industry, especially daily wage workers.

“We all are interconnected. We thought of doing something, we will look after those who have worked with us. We have informed our head of departments. We are there to help. Anubhav Sinha, Vikramaditya Motwane have informed their own people. I am sure Rohit Shetty will be helping his own people. We can survive for six months but the daily wage workers are going to suffer a lot. We all should help each other,” Mishra told PTI.