Bhubaneswar: With corona positive cases passing one million marks in India and resulting in more than 25,000 deaths, it is needless to mention that the outbreak has affected people across all sections of the society and entertainment industry is not an exception. While the pandemic has not affected the top stars much, economically, it is the lowest-paid workers of the industry or the small time actors who find it difficult to sustain their families. With the regular shooting getting cancelled due to corona scare, many such artistes and technicians are switching to other professions, selling vegetables in particular, to eke out a living.
Kartik Sahoo of Kendrapada district who has worked in Mumbai film industry is one such actor who was seen vending vegetables Monday at Rasulgarh area for his sustenance.
“Cancellation of shoots in Mumbai first forced me to return and now I have no choice but to sell vegetables to take care of my family including the ailing parents,” said the actor who has worked with Akshay Kumar in yet-to-be-released Sooryavanshi. He was also shooting with Akshay for another movie Prithviraj under Yash Raj Films banner when the outbreak put a break on shooting and production. Besides, he shot with Sanjay Dutt in Shamshera.
Kartik, earlier, was working as a bouncer and in charge of the security of many celebrities. He has also appeared in several TV serials including Shree Ganesha.
After his return from Mumbai, he was expecting that the shoot would begin soon. But that didn’t happen which forced him to take to vegetable selling.
He has not got the full payment from the producers for whom he worked. “Now, I desperately want the situation to improve so that I can resume work,” he said.
Earlier, Ravi Kumar, a comedian and mimicry artist from Odisha also started selling vegetables during the lockdown to earn livelihood. He took to his new profesion to feed a family of 11. Ravi used his artistic skills to sell vegetables by doing mimicry of Hindi film actors.
A few Jatra artistes also started selling fish and doing odd jobs for survival. For instance, Jatra artist Sukant Pani along with his wife now sells fish and vegetable to sustain their family of five in Raghunathpur block of Jagatsinghpur district.
In Mumbai, actor Javed Hyder who has worked in more than 300 movies was also seen selling veggies to earn a living.
PNN