KUALA LUMPUR: Popular director and producer Shahrulezad Mohameddin is peeved by certain productions that are willing to falsify vaccination certificates in order to acquire a special Certificate of Filming (SPP) from the National Film Development Corporation (Finas).
The co-founder of Radius One Sdn Bhd took to social media recently to voice his disappointment at the irresponsible parties whose dishonest actions could potentially jeopardise the livelihoods of everyone in the creative industry.
Shahrulezad claimed that he got wind of artistes and crew members who had conspired with certain parties to purchase fake vaccination certificates via the MySejahtera app.
"They might be rumours but when things are tough anything can happen. If medical certificates can be bought, it's not impossible that the same can be said of vaccination certificates," he said in a recent news report.
The director of the hit drama series Nur hopes that the authorities would be more vigilant in the usage of the MySejahtera app especially in terms of the vaccination status for individuals.
"If this is not tackled from the very start, it would not be surprising if these unfortunate incidents were to happen. So I hope the government can do something to ensure tighter enforcement to curb any of the syndicates that could falsify vaccination certificates.
"Plus, stern action should be applied since this is not only against the law but also puts the safety and health of others at risk," he said.
As a producer, Shahrulezad added that he was responsible to ensure that his production company adhered strictly to the SOP set by the NSC.
In this case, he will not tolerate working with artistes and crew members who have not yet been fully vaccinated with two doses.
"We must remember that when there are Covid-19 cases in a production, filming activities will be halted and the whole team has to be quarantined.
"This will involve cost. Payment for leasing the film equipment will still have to be made even though filming has stopped.
"Moreover, no insurance company will cover productions in this situation. As a safety measure, I will conduct stricter checks on the validity of vaccination certificates for artistes and the production crew.
"Even if I'm given a copy as proof of being fully vaccinated with two doses, I will still check it out to ensure that all of it is bona fide information," he said.
