Coronavirus update: Zee Entertainment announces financial relief for over 5,000 daily-wage earners

Contributing to the fight against the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus disease) pandemic, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), a mass media company with interests in television, internet, film, mobile content and allied businesses, has offered financial relief to over 5,000 daily-wage earners who work directly or indirectly for it.

The move comes at a time when the entertainment industry is trying to cope with the challenge of safeguarding the livelihoods of daily-wage earners who constitute a significant section of the industry.

The move by ZEEL is to try and ensure that the families of the daily-wage earners are not adversely affected during the current countrywide lockdown.

In addition, ZEEL is providing an opportunity to all its 3,500 employees to offer contributions to the PM CARES Fund through an intranet portal. The funds collected from the employees will be matched by the company and the consolidated amount will be donated to the newly set-up fund to help those affected by the pandemic and the lockdown.

Speaking about the initiative, ZEEL managing director and chief executive officer Punit Goenka said, “We stand committed to financially support all the daily-wage earners working in our production ecosystem. We firmly believe in the extraordinary power of coming together and fighting against a situation. In these challenging times, it is critical for India Inc to come together and support the national initiative undertaken by prime minister Narendra Modi.”

Earlier, ZEEL had announced an initiative titled #BreakTheCoronaOutbreak where content across the company's 40+ satellite channels was paused for 30-second breaks throughout the day to encourage viewers to wash their hands.