Mumbai’s specialised lightmen, who handle dangerous high-voltage equipment on film sets, are abandoning cinema for gig work with Swiggy, Ola and Rapido. Crushed by 18-hour days, unpaid “pre-call” hours, delayed wages and blacklisting for speaking out, they say the glamour of filmmaking masks a brutal, undignified grind that no longer supports basic family needs.
There is a crushing reality playing out on film sets: the lightmen who help illuminate cinema are battling absolute darkness off-camera. Saddled with undignified and delayed pay, 18-hour workdays, and systematic exploitation, a section of technicians are quitting the film industry, fearing that the culture of movie-making is no longer sustainable.
While lead actors operate on strictly enforced 12-hour schedules, the mechanics of a film set force the lighting department into a brutal routine that routinely swallows their entire day — and night.
"From the time we are called... for actors, it’s 12 hours of shooting, which eventually becomes 15. That is still okay," actor Jimmy Shergill had told The Hollywood Reporter India.
"My fight is for the workers. They typically arrive on a set three hours before the shoot begins and have to wrap up and leave — which takes 18 hours, followed by their travel time back home. So he's just going home to meet his wife and coming back. What kind of life is he living?"
Lighting crew members handle high-voltage equipment, heavy rigs, and complex electrical distribution systems where a single misstep can lead to catastrophic accidents.
"Some lightmen are hardcore, specialised technicians who are essential to keep sets safe — it’s directly related to electricity, and therefore to human life," explains gaffer Sajid Shaikh (Girls Will Be Girls, Ulajh), of All Film Equipment, founded by Rubb Bhungdawala Sheikh.
"If an efficient person isn't in charge, a tragedy can happen. They are specialised technicians, not generic labourers. But because they don't get paid, many are leaving to become Swiggy and Zomato delivery boys as it pays better and reliably. It is happening rapidly as we speak. 'We can't take this anymore bhai, we have to leave' — that is what a technician told me recently. Specialised people are walking away simply because they aren't being compensated."
Arjun Singh, director of Light Craft and Sound — one of Mumbai's leading film equipment rental vendors — publicly echoed the life-threatening risks technicians endure daily.
"The lightmen who work for us play with risks — they play with live current, which means they are playing with their lives," Singh stated.
"If we at least increase their wage by just ₹300 to ₹400 for a 12-hour shift, every lightman, every technician will work happily. They will finally get some light in their own lives! This is a request to all producers, not a demand," he said in a recent social media address to the industry.
When THR India reached out to some working lightmen across film sets in Mumbai, some refused to speak, fearing that being seen speaking to the press would instantly land them on industry blacklists.
For the average lightman, the day begins long before sunrise. Because skyrocketing rents have pushed most blue-collar technicians out of Mumbai into distant towns like Virar, Nalasopara, and Vasai, a 9:00 AM call time requires waking up at 2:30 AM.
After an hour-and-a-half train ride, they meet at equipment hubs in Goregaon or Versova to load heavy gear, before traveling another hour to remote shooting locations like Madh Island. By the time they arrive at 8:00 AM — a "pre-call" hour intended for breakfast and preparation that productions now routinely treat as unpaid labour — they have already been awake for six hours.
Shaikh explains, "It used to be that if there was a 9:00 AM shift, people would arrive at 8:30 AM, have breakfast, and start at 9:00 AM. Gradually, production started taking advantage of it and made that extra hour mandatory. Then came the 'grace periods.' First it was five minutes, then 15, then 45, and now it's an hour or more of unpaid overtime. A 12-hour shift becomes 15 hours just like that."
Even the designated breaks on set offer little relief. During standard 10-to-15-minute evening snack breaks, a crew member told THR India that there is an unwritten expectation that the lighting crew will continue working so the set is ready the moment the break ends. By the time the lightmen finally step away to grab a bite, the food is often entirely finished.
The physical strain is compounded by tasks outside their job scope. On set, lighting crews are routinely instructed to hold skimmers to shade production monitors or rig rain protection for other departments —draining manpower and inflating the workload for an already exhausted crew.
When wrap is finally called, their day is far from over as lighting boys are expected to dismantle and load massive rigs immediately after a 14-hour shoot. "Often the production doesn't want to bear another day's studio rent, so they say, 'Get it done tonight itself,'" says camera operator Tushar Jhamtani.
For all this, the standard daily wage for a lightman sits at approximately ₹2,000 to ₹2,200. Yet, the primary point of failure isn't just the low pay but also the complete lack of cash flow. In an industry where production houses routinely withhold payments for 30, 45, or even 60 days, daily-wage technicians are left unable to cover basic household survival.
"They just have to buy groceries, pay their children's school fees, and sometimes buy an ice cream," Shaikh says. "They have such basic needs, and for that, they are fighting so much. And if someone speaks up, production houses blacklist them. They say, 'Don't call them, we have 10 other options who will work cheap.'"
Faced with vanishing dignity and systemic delays, many are voting with their feet. The gig economy — once seen as a fallback — has become an attractive alternative to working on big-budget feature films and OTT series.
"Several light boys I know are leaving to drive for Ola, Uber," Jhamtani reveals. "They say, 'We are sitting in an AC car all day and at least getting paid. Why should we come here and be treated like manual labourers rather than skilled technicians?' On their way home to Mira Road, boys turn on their Rapido apps, take two rides, and make ₹100 just to cover their petrol. They are happier doing that than staying on a film set."
While legacy trade bodies and union federations remain largely passive, a grassroots movement led by a younger generation of technicians, gaffers, and independent vendors is forcing a reckoning.
Shaikh’s recent viral Instagram post laid out a set of non-negotiable operational boundaries for the lighting department: enforcing strict 12-hour cutoffs, stopping unpaid pre-call work, demanding separate dismantling crews, and refusing off-department manual labor.
"I chose to remain a technician rather than become a cinematographer because someone qualified needed to stand up and fix this culture," Shaikh muses. "We refuse 400 to 500 projects a year as a company because we won't participate in dirty, unethical shoots. But what about the poor lightman who can't fight the rental house or the production manager? If we don't stand up for our own department... no one else will."