For cinema halls and the film exhibitor sector, which are still struggling to survive after months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, the announcement of the indefinite postponement of a number of films including Bunty Aur Babli 2, Chehre, and Haathi Mere Saathi came as a huge blow. After the COVID vaccine rollout, much of Bollywood was hopeful that audiences would be comfortable going back to cinemas, leading many filmmakers and studio houses to unveil the new release dates for their long-held films last month. However, unfortunately, coronavirus cases have been on a surge for the past few weeks across the country and that has once again forced film producers to overhaul their upcoming film release plans.
Directed by Rumi Jafry, Chehre was originally scheduled to hit the theatres on April 9 but the makers decided to delay its release amid a major spike in the COVID-19 cases. The mystery thriller, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Emraan Hashmi, has been the talk of the town ever since its trailer was released which received an overwhelming response from the viewers. Needless to say, its delay has caused a major disappointment to cinema hall owners.
“Everybody was thinking that their business was back but the second wave of COVID changed all the plans. We are back to where were. There will be more postponements coming in days to come. The entire April is likely to get affected. Sooryavanshi is exactly a month away from now and we can only hope that things get better by that time. But I think more or less all the releases of April might get postponed,” Trade analyst Atul Mohan told us.
Apart from Akshay Kumar-starrer Sooryavanshi, which is scheduled to arrive in cinemas on April 30 as of now, Kangana Ranaut’s Thalaivi will also hit the screens next month. However, Mohan believes that Thalaivi still holds a chance to have a smooth theatrical release as it’s a multilingual biopic positioned for a pan-India release and cine-goers down south have been flocking to theatres despite coronavirus fears.
“The South film industry is doing pretty well in terms of box office revenue. Even though we are hearing that the cases are on a rise down South as well, it’s not as sensitive as it is in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and Delhi and these are the key markets for Hindi films. Also, Thalaivi is releasing in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. So if things are in control there, the makers might release the Telugu and Tamil versions of the film for the South markets just like Haathi Mere Saathi.”
The makers of Rana Daggubati-starrer Haathi Mere Saathi put the big-screen release of the film on hold due to rising COVID-19 cases in the country. Haathi Mere Saathi was supposed to arrive in theatres on March 26 along with Tamil and Telugu versions, Kaadan and Aranya, respectively. However, the film’s producer Eros International issued an official statement, saying, the team is deferring the release given the “COVID-19 situation in Hindi markets”. They, however, went ahead with the scheduled releases of Aranya and Kaadan in the South markets on March 26.
Sanjay Gupta’s gangster action drama Mumbai Saga, which released on March 19 in cinemas, was touted to break the dry spell at the box office but the film failed to create any magic despite a powerful cast and decent reviews. “Unfortunately, it’s because the moviegoing experience becomes the last thing onto the audience’s minds at this time because safety becomes the first priority,” film Producer and trade business analyst Girish Johar said.
Johar said the Hindi film industry was hopeful that COVID-19 vaccines might calm the waters and allow moviegoing to resume in earnest by late March but “the situation is far from normal, in fact, it’s alarming at the moment.” He also expressed concern over single-screen theatres being at risk of permanent closure.
“Almost a year of closure of business has led the permanent closure of 1000-1500 theatres. The exhibition industry was expecting some return back during Holi weekend because big Hindi films would traditionally release at this time, but the box office revenue is not at all good. It’s sad to say that there were certain cinemas that were on the last mile and were hoping that the box office would start running again but the constant rise in the cases and continued delays of films will add woes to their concerns.”
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