Tigmanshu Dhulia & Crew Vandalized & Violated, Dhulia Speaks

 Shooting for a web series  entitled Fixer on a property  in Mumbai’s Mira Raod, proved  a very painful experience for director Sohum Shah and his  team.

On  Wednesday afternoon, hours after the unit started shooting as per routine, a gang of violent  goons  descended on the set.What happened next  could be a sequence of prolonged violence from a Tigmanshu Dhulia  film set in the  badlands of  Uttar Pradesh.

“And to think that this happened in civilized urbane metropolitan Mumbai!” Dhulia who  is an actor  in this  series,  still couldn’t get  over  the  violence that he had seen. “When  my co-stars Mahie Gill and others, and my directorSohum Shah  saw this big  gang of goons entering our  location we  thought they were part of another unit shooting nearby  or maybe  some tourists  from UP who had dropped  in  to  see the shooting. But no. They headed straight towards us and began brutally thrashing anyone they  could  lay their hands on.”

Too stunned  to react  Dhulia  says he was frozen on the spot. “I’ve directed many scenes  of brutal violence. But nothing compares with the real  thing. They savagely  beat up our cameraperson Santosh Thundiyal .He  had  to get several stitches. Mahie Gill’s ‘boy’(Man Friday)’s hand was fractured. There was chaos blood and violence everywhere,” Dhulia shudders.

 What brought on this wave  of  violence?

“I don’t know, We  had got the  necessary permission to shoot. Maybe there was something amiss in  the go-ahead required to shoot on that property. And those  goons had been sent to vacate the  property. If so, why suddenly  come there and start thrashing  the unit? Is  there  no civilized way of dealing with  such an issue?Is there  no  law to protect  film units in Mumbai when they’re shooting on the  roads  of Mumbai? I am afraid Mumbai is no longer  a  place fit for shooting,” says Dhulia.

 The  shooting of the series Fixer remains  uncertain now.

“We  can’t go back to that  location. And since we’ve already shot there we  need to match the new location   with what we’ve shot. But  very honestly we are scared to shoot. After  the goons ransacked our location and beat up our unit-members we  saw them speaking with  police men  across  the  road,” reveals  Dhulia

The case  rests.