Parambrata Chattopadhyay: We will have to deal with Covid for the next couple of years in varying degrees

When the second lockdown happened, Parambrata Chattopadhyay was in the middle of shooting for his Hindi and Bengali projects and admits that no one was expecting another lockdown this year.

The Black Widows actor and his team then branched out into helping “people in tough times with all kinds of things” in the last few months. He adds, “Now things are looking up and work is resuming again. So, I hope we jump back into work as soon as possible. I think, we will have deal with Covid for the next couple of years in varying degrees. The virus isn’t going anywhere and we need to continue maintaining safety protocols, even if right now, it’s not that bad, cases are low and things are opening up. The last one and half years have been full of ups and downs. There are concerns about the third wave, too, but we are looking forward to shooting right now.”

With work on his mind, he will start shooting in a week’s time with his Bengali film, followed by wrapping up the Hindi film with Akarsh Khurana. He’s got web shows lined up for August and September and a Bengali home production later. Chattopadhyay shares that Bengal is doing well with regards to vaccination and the number of Covid cases have reduced considerably.

The 40-year-old says that theatres might not open before August in Bengal, and that too at 50%. He elaborates, “All these plans are based on the hope that things go on without any break. If the third wave doesn’t hit us too bad and if the vaccination drives continue at this speed, we can only hope that when the theatres open, things might go back to normal. We can only hope that in a couple of months full-capacity seating is allowed in theatres. After last year, everyone was raring to go back to work but the second wave hit us all hard, so now we are doubly cautious and wary about piling up our hopes. We are apprehensive and all of us are playing it by the ear. Things look better and I hope we manage to tackle the third wave better than the second.”