Akshay Kumar, R Balki shoot for coronavirus awareness campaign at Mumbai studio

Balki said the advertisement was for the Health Ministry and the team took all the necessary precautions, including wearing masks and working with minimal crew.

"This is an ad for the health ministry featuring Akshay Kumar about the post lockdown responsibilities of each one of us. We need to get back to work but ensure our safety and those of others. So at our shoot we did the same.

"Like getting back to work with social distancing, sanitised outdoor set, disinfectant screen, masks. We got used to it in a few minutes. There was minimal crew and very strict protocols," Balki told PTI.

The director, who has collaborated with Akshay in films like "Padman" and "Mission Mangal", said the crew realised the shooting can be done "quite easily" following all the guidelines.

"Anil Naidu, the producer, showed us how we can do the same shoot with fewer people with maximum safety ensured. Of course, we had all the permissions of police etc. We needed to do this as this messaging was extremely important," he added.

According to pictures and videos doing the rounds from the sets, the crew had to pass through a disinfection tunnel, post which they were handed masks, face shields and had their temperature checked by medical personnel in PPE suits.

Shooting for films and other production activities continue to stay suspended from mid-March in view of the coronavirus pandemic.