Kunal Kohli: Shot with Lara alone, added co-actors later

Lara Dutta

When Kunal Kohli began filming his yet-untitled Lara Dutta-led web series in February-end, he believed the worst of the pandemic was behind us. As the cases started surging across the state from March, the filmmaker - who is shooting with minimal crew - conscientiously ramped up safety measures on the set. "Apart from following strict protocols like monitoring temperature and disinfecting the set every two hours, I ask technicians to wait outside after they have set up the scene. That way, actors shoot on a relatively empty floor. Whenever we change the location within the set, everything - from the chairs to the equipment - are sanitised all over again," he states, adding that glass screens have been put up in the cafeteria to enable social distancing during lunch breaks.

The safety measures adopted include glass screens and sanitisation tunnel

With the spike in cases, came additional on-set restrictions in the first week of April, which included the barring of filming crowd sequences. "Fortunately, we completed the few crowd sequences in early March, before these restrictions came into effect," he says, recounting how he pre-emptively employed special effects for a crucial scene. "One of the scenes required Lara to sit in a bus with some other passengers. We shot it with her alone in the bus, and added other [passengers] through visual effects."

Kunal Kohli

Kohli has only a week of work left on the web series, which also features Prateik Babbar and is the adaptation of popular international show Casual.