- Archana Puran Singh highlighted stingy food provisions on some film and TV sets affecting crew meals
- She described work shifts often lasting 13-14 hours with skipped lunch breaks to keep shoots on schedule
- Archana cited a major production house limiting non-vegetarian food and rationing rotis for crew members
Archana Puran Singh recently spoke about difficult working conditions on film and TV sets. The actress called out certain production houses for being excessively frugal with meals. Sharing her experience, she alleged that in some cases, food was rationed to the extent that crew members were served as little as two rotis for lunch.
Speaking to News18 with her Toaster co-stars Rajkummar Rao, Sanya Malhotra and Abhishek Banerjee, Archana claimed production houses often put the crew's basic comfort and dignity aside to keep shoots on schedule. The actress said, "They want to pack in as much work as possible. We would have 9 am - 6 pm and 2 pm - 10 pm shifts. These days, shifts span over 12 hours. Even then, they expect us to extend our work hours to 13-14 hours and skip lunch breaks."
She added, "This is a kind of kanjoosi (stinginess) only. Kanjoosi is a mentality. Phir aap har cheez mein kanjoosi karte ho (Then you become stingy about everything). How can you not let the light men, who hold their equipment and stand under the sun for hours, eat? They don't have assistants like us bringing them fruits. It's terrible.”
Archana also recounted an example of how crew members were treated on certain sets. “We've experienced this a lot. There was a very big production house, which I don't want to name. We used to call them, ‘Ek boti, do roti.' (One piece of meat, two pieces of bread). If you ask a crew member about them, they would say, ‘Achcha, yeh toh ek boti, do roti waale hai.' At the lunch table, the non-vegetarian food served would be very limited. Crew members would be told to only have a certain number of rotis and one serving of the non-vegetarian item," she shared.
Rajkummar Rao also flagged the issue of a lack of structured breaks on set. He said, “I don't understand why lunch breaks aren't provided.” If the shoot begins at 12:30 pm, they expect us to keep at it till maybe 3:30 pm. They can instead let everyone have their lunches at 1:30 pm and then resume. They should think about crew members as well. I really don't get it.”
Directed by Vivek Daschaudary, Toaster is currently streaming on Netflix.
