By Alyssia Birjalal 
4m ago
IOL Entertainment brings you the latest in Bollywood entertainment news and trends in Bolly-Fix weekly.
This week we look at a Covid-19 vaccination drive for Bollywood, actress, Malaika Arora opening up about her Covid-19 journey and “Girl on the Train” actress, Parineeti Chopra who has given OTT platforms a chance.
Entertainment industry workers to get vaccinated
Close to 5 000 cast and crews of various TV and film productions will soon be vaccinated in India in an initiative to get Bollywood back on track.
The Producers’ Guild of India and the Indian Film & Television Directors’ Association (IFTDA) are organising the vaccination drives after the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged through India.
Major production houses including Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Rohit Shetty Picturez and Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment have come forward to support and join this initiative.
Through these camps, thousands of production house personnel and crews will be vaccinated over the multi-day drive being held at Mehboob Studios, starting June 1.
Malaika Arora on Covid-19: “It broke me physically”
Actress, Malaika Arora who recently opened up about her Covid-19 diagnosed said that the virus “broke“ her.
Opening up about her recovery in a lengthy Instagram post, she said: “I tested positive on the 5th of September and it was really bad.
“Anyone out there calling a Covid recovery easy, is either blessed with great immunity or isn’t aware of the struggles of Covid.
“Having gone through it myself, ‘Easy’ is not the word I’d choose. It broke me physically. Walking 2 steps felt like a herculean task.
“Sitting up, just stepping out of bed, wanting to stand in my window was a journey in itself.”
Adding that she had gained weight, felt weak and lost her stamina.
“I finally tested negative on the 26th of September and I was so grateful that I did. But the weakness stayed.
“I felt disappointed that my body wasn’t supporting how my mind felt. I was afraid that I’d never gain back my strength.
“I wondered whether I’d even be able to complete one activity in 24 hours,” Malaika said.
Parineeti Chopra has changed her mind about OTT platforms
“Namaste England” actress, Parineeti Chopra recently admitted that she used to think films that came out on OTT platforms were compromised.
However Parineeti changed her opinion after the start of her eventful year where she starred in three film releases, “The Girl on the Train”, “Sandeep aur Pinky Farar” and “Saina”.
She said: “I think just like any other actor, I also had the clichéd opinion that films should have a theatrical release, and a film coming out on OTT is a compromised release,” she admits, saying that she no longer has that notion.
“In the last one year, there has been such a shift as to how people are consuming content and how they are watching films. Now, the primary way of watching any kind of content is OTT,” she said.
Parineeti also feels that the web space gives a film as well as an actor a far wider reach compared to any other medium.