The coronavirus outbreak, that has been marked a “pandemic” by the World Health Organisation (WHO). While shoots of several Bollywood projects are getting delayed, the release date of most of the films is likely to be postponed due to covid-19 outbreak. Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi, on Thursday, marked the first film to be pushed ahead due to the Pandemic. Schools have been closed for a month, work from home has been given to the employees in many countries, tours are being canceled, promotions and shooting paused for somedays. As India has seen approx 77 cases of coronavirus till Thursday and a case of death due to the disease of a 77 years man, many films will be likely to postpone. The declaration came into the light just after the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal declared that cinema halls in Delhi will remain shut till March 31.
Lately, 17 coronavirus cases in Kerala has been identified, the government has lately announced that theatres across the state will be locked until March 31. The cases of the disease are increasing as the days pass. The outbreak of covid-19 is a huge threat to the whole world. “It is a big blow to the film industry as Delhi is among the key markets for Hindi films. It is a big revenue loss for sure. Earlier, the makers of Sooryavanshi were planning to release the film as per schedule, on March 24, but now when cinema halls in Delhi have been shut till March 31, they must have realized that it is too large a pie to be missed,” film trade analyst Girish Johar told us over the phone.
Most recently, Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor starrer Baaghi 3’s box office business became a hit after the scare of coronavirus spread in India. It opened at Rs 17.5 crore, the film has been the highest Bollywood opener of 2020, but the collection was presumed to be much higher. Director Ahmed Khan had said in an interview with PTI that he would have expected Baaghi 3 to open at Rs 30 crore but he was happy with Friday collections given the coronavirus scare.
Film trade analyst, Atul Mohan does not recognise any trouble for Sooryavanshi but feels that the box-office collection of Angrezi Medium will be affected by 15 to 20 per cent. He said, “For Sooryavanshi, I don’t see any big loss. Regardless of its time of release, it will do business in the range of Rs 200 crore-Rs 250 crore. The makers, though, will have to spend a few crores to revive the buzz. But Angrezi Medium will be affected by 15 to 20 per cent because of the cinema closure in Delhi.
However, the big relief for the makers is that the multiplexes in Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram and Faridabad are operational, which can cater to a large section of the Delhi audience.” Atul added that since Sooryavanshi had been postponed, it will lead to delay in the release of all the big and small films lined up to hit the screens in the subsequent months. He further said that the shutdown of theatres will result in a dramatic increase in subscriptions on OTT platforms.
