Movies and film stars might have always turned Malayali hearts aflutter. But back in the quaint heritage town of Fort Kochi things are a little different. For in the recent times, the residents here have not only shown an absence of any such pleasure over film shoots but in fact have found it a positive nuisance.
Road blocks, employment of goons, scuffles with the neighbours, insensitive parking, dumping of equipment on roads, malpractice in the use of shoot licences and so on are a few complaints alleged by the residents.
“There are days when the whole road is blocked by multiple film units and people cannot even get out of their homes. Since the roads here are quite narrow even basic access to these roads become impossible. There are also cases where arguments have broken out over this. Since most of residents are old, they put up with it without complaints. The other day some film unit had left their equipment including their camera rail in the middle of the road near the Princess Street, creating a traffic havoc. If this goes unchecked it will become a serious issue,” said Sunil George, a resident who approached the Fort Kochi police last week regarding the issue.
Another issue is that local goons are appointed by the film crew. “These people often threaten and misbehave with the residents. Seems like there is a connivance between them and the police. If the film crew takes up a boarding in Fort Kochi, the hotel owner has to meet the expenses of the goons. Once when a hotel owner refused they threatened to stash ganja in his hotel and get him arrested. Even though a police complaint was lodged at the Fort Kochi Police Station on August 15, no action has been taken yet,” said the secretary of the Fort Kochi Tourist Home Owners’ Association, who has also given a statement to the special branch regarding the issue. Meanwhile, the councillor in the area said that most of the film crew did not bother to get a permission from the Corporation for the shoots.
“The film units would get a permission from the Collector for a day which is charged at `5000, but this permission is only at the Fort Kochi beach which is under the Collector’s jurisdiction. But in practice, with the help of the local goons, copies of the letter are circulated for days together to different units and there is no check on this. The issue was recently raised at the Corporation council,” said Councillor Antony Kureethara.
Meanwhile, the Fort Kochi Police denied the receipt of any complaint.
“We have not received any complaint on the issue. But sufficient care has been taken over film shoots. When the roads have to be blocked for film shoots we ensure that there are alternate routes. We have decided to be more stringent in the coming days,” said Fort Kochi Circle Inspector.
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