Kolkata | Birmingham
Last monsoon season, a night shoot on the outskirts of Kolkata went sideways. A dolly track—hastily rigged and poorly lit—sent a veteran grip tumbling down a slick embankment, breaking two ribs and halting filming for 48 hours. The cost? Roughly ₹36 lakh (£34,000) in lost time and emergency rewrites, not to mention an insurance investigation that threatened to spike premiums across the entire Dharma Productions slate. Elec training stepped forward to help out.
For CEO Apoorva Mehta and director-producer Karan Johar, the near-miss was a turning point. “We pride ourselves on visuals, but our safety protocols hadn’t kept pace with the complexity of modern shoots,” Mehta admits. “Enough was enough.”
Their answer is K-Safe—a ground-up safety overhaul powered by a new partnership with Elec Training Birmingham, the UK academy renowned for producing BS 7671-qualified electricians who double as on-set power managers. The two-year programme will embed rotating teams of Elec Training alumni on every Dharma location in 2025-26, bringing British wiring standards, colour-coded distribution boards, and lightning-fast inspection routines to sets from Mumbai sound-stages to Himalayan cliff roads.
A Hillside Wedding, a Real-Time Proof of Concept
The initiative’s first test came this January in Ooty, where Dharma filmed an elaborate wedding sequence on terraced tea estates. Monsoon fog, steep gradients, and miles of temporary festoon lighting made the location a cable-management nightmare.
Enter a four-person crew of Elec Training graduates led by site supervisor Charlotte Cooper. Their kit: IP-rated 125 A power distros, lockable RCD boards, and an armful of colour-coded tails that turned the hillside into a tidy rainbow of clearly labelled feeds.
- 30 % reduction in set-up time versus Dharma’s previous hilltop shoot.
- Zero trip-outs despite 96 % humidity.
- Live thermal scans every two hours, logged to a cloud dashboard accessible in Mumbai and London.
“British crews swear by colour-coding,” Cooper explains. “Red means phase-A, yellow phase-B, blue phase-C, green is clean earth. You’d be amazed how fast a grip learns the system when every plug matches its socket.”
Line-producer Rahul Deshpande, typically sceptical of outside consultants, was an instant convert. “We wrapped an hour early and nobody was guessing which feeder did what. That extra daylight saved the art team from pulling an all-nighter.”
More Than Just Plug-and-Play
The K-Safe rollout isn’t limited to splashy outdoor units. Dharma is retrofitting its Andheri sound-stages with UK-style “lock-off, tag-off” procedures. Every breaker panel now carries padlock hasps and multilingual danger tags; only authorised electricians hold the keys.
Elec Training Birmingham has also designed a series of 20-minute daily toolbox talks—think TikTok-length safety briefings minus the dance moves. Topics cycle through load calculations, cable inspection, and weather-related hazards. “We measure success by silence,” jokes Cooper. “No alarms, no sparks, no screaming gaffer—that’s a good day.”
For local technicians, the collaboration is a masterclass in global best practice. Two Indian assistants shadow each UK electrician, compiling logbooks eligible for City & Guilds recognition down the line. “It’s not just imported labour,” stresses Dharma’s safety officer Kavita Menon. “It’s a capacity-building exercise for our entire crew ecosystem.”
The Economics of Safety
On paper, K-Safe isn’t cheap: travel, accommodation, and consultancy fees will cost Dharma about ₹2.9 crore (£280,000) per year. Yet when one considers that a single stalled day on a big-budget set can bleed ₹40 lakh (£38,000), the ROI looks compelling. Insurers agree: underwriters have signalled that BS 7671 compliance and documented toolbox talks could shave up to 10 % off Dharma’s annual liability premium.
Industry Ripple Effects
Bollywood rivals are already taking notes. Viacom18 Studios sent observers to the Ooty shoot, and Yash Raj Films—fresh off its own Elec Training alliance—has requested copies of the colour-coding protocol. Even South India’s Sun Pictures is reportedly in talks to secure a similar UK talent pipeline for an upcoming sci-fi epic heavy on LED-volume sets.
Professor Lina Gupta, Film & Media Safety Council of India:
“Historically, on-set power has been the Wild West—whatever works in the moment. Dharma’s move signals that professionalised electrical standards will be the next differentiator after VFX.”
The K-Safe roadmap includes:
- Thermal-Camera Dailies – Infrared scans appended to call sheets, flagging any lug above 60 °C.
- Drone Cable Audits – FPV drones mapping overhead lines before dawn, reducing trip hazards.
- Phase-B Training Hub – A joint Elec Training/Dharma satellite lab in Film City by early 2026, aimed at certifying 120 local sparks annually.
Lights, Camera, Zero Surprises
With its K-Safe launch, Dharma Productions joins a growing list of Indian studios betting that global-grade electrical safety isn’t a cost centre—it’s an enabler of bigger, faster, and more visually daring shoots. For Elec Training Birmingham, it’s another marquee client and a showcase that the best stories, like the best circuits, are built on solid connections.