How ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’ became a zero-waste film set

Do you know that about 17,000 kg of garbage from the sets of a Hindi film Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui Was diverted from landfill and instead composted, recycled or donated? This accounts for more than 95 percent of the shoot’s waste that doesn’t end up in landfills. The effort to make this mainstream film a zero-waste set was spearheaded by co-producer Pragya Kapoor in collaboration with Scrap, an environmental sustainability firm that works on finding zero-waste solutions for businesses.

the director Abhishek Kapoor and produced by T-Series in association with Guy in the Sky Pictures, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (Now Streaming on Netflix) revolves around the story of a transwoman’s (Vaani Kapoor) relationship with a Punjabi body-builder (Ayushmann Khurrana). Even as the film attempts to break stereotypes in gender spaces, it was recently awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Award, a unique distinction in the film fraternity.

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So, what goes into making an environmentally sustainable film set? And what are the challenges in ensuring an eco-friendly set up? “Encouraging crew members to participate in the agenda was challenging at first, as segregating waste was a new concept on location. Identifying local recycling facilities in a new city,” says Divya Ravichandran, founder of Scrap. It can be a difficult process to do, especially for materials like construction waste from sets.”

Ms. Kapoor’s keen interest in waste management inspired the crew members to participate, says Ms. Ravichandran, adding that her team worked hard to create awareness and behavior change about on-set waste segregation.

Some of the efforts made by Scrap were to use water dispensers and compostable plates, to reduce the use of single-use plastics. “To reduce food wastage, we worked closely with the production and catering teams of the film to re-check food orders. With the help of organizations like Feeding India and Robinhood Army, we ensured that excess food is collected and shared among local communities,” says Ms. Ravichandran.

A waste separation system was installed at the shoot locations, then the separated waste was sorted into more than 15 categories before being sent to recycling and composting facilities. “With our waste management implementation, the amount of waste dumped in landfills has come down from about 325 kg per day to an average of less than 4 kg per day,” she adds.

Since the film was shot during the pandemic, all PPE waste was collected and stored separately for seven days, before being upcycled into items such as low-weight bricks and lamp shades. Ms. Ravichandran says, “We shared regular updates on zero-waste implementation with the film crew to raise awareness and enthusiasm.”

Scrap is currently working with other production houses such as Clean Slate Films and Yash Raj Films to help make more film sets zero-waste.