Indian theatres are attempting to recover from the effects of the COVID by releasing a police drama to start off a slate of holiday season blockbusters.
India's big screens are once again hosting Bollywood stars after more than a year apart, with the film business hopeful that a decline in COVID-19 cases and the festival season would entice fans back into the theatres.
Sooryavanshi (Descendants of the Sun), a police drama starring four of India's most prominent actors, is the first A-list Bollywood film to premiere in theatres since a strict lockdown forced all venues to close in March 2020. Sooryavanshi (Descendants of the Sun) is the first A-list Bollywood film to premiere in theatres since March 2020.
Since then, just a few Bollywood films have been produced in theatres, with many producers opting instead to distribute their films via streaming services such as Amazon's Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney.
Shibasish Sarkar, who served as group CEO of producer Reliance Entertainment throughout the film's production, said the Reuters news agency, "It was difficult to wait out for a theatrical release, but we still feel that people would come back to the theatres."
A day after the Hindu holiday of Diwali, which is normally a major box office day, Sooryavanshi, an action-drama in the Bollywood style with dazzling dance scenes and muscle-bound leading men defeating baddies, was released on Friday.
Originally scheduled to be released in March 2020, the film's release date was postponed three times as India dealt with a surge of coronavirus outbreaks and authorities closed down major regions of the nation, including numerous movie theatres.
Eternals, the next addition in Hollywood's Marvel series, and the colorful drama Annaatthe, which will feature Tamil superstar Rajinikanth, will both make their debuts this week.
Annaatthe fans in Tamil Nadu's Madurai city splashed milk over posters depicting Rajinikanth's face on Thursday as a show of respect for the actor, who is regarded as practically godlike by many in the state due to his performance in the film.
As the film industry begins to recover, India's biggest multiplex operator, PVR, will launch an open-air, rooftop drive-in theatre in Mumbai on Friday, which will be the world's first of its kind, according to the company.
'People are returning to the theatres.'
Maharashtra, India's wealthiest state, which generates more than 30 percent of the country's box-office income, only opened its theatres with limitations two weeks ago, as the number of cases declined and the number of vaccines increased.
In an interview with Reuters, Rajendra Singh Jayla, the director of programming for INOX, the country's second-largest multiplex chain, said that he expects demand to return to levels seen before the COVID-19 disaster.
However, the company has constantly recorded a net loss since March 2020, and Jyala believes that another wave of coronavirus infections, as well as any further lockdowns, may have a devastating impact on the already troubled business.
Producers have gained money by selling their films to streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix, but theatre owners have suffered the most, according to Shailesh Kapoor, founder, and CEO of Ormax Media, which analyses films before and after they are released.
According to accounting company EY, India's media and entertainment profits decreased by a quarter last year to $18.7 billion, with the majority of multiplex chains reporting significant losses. However, the industry is expecting a resurgence, with theatres throughout the nation have reopened their doors.
According to Komal Nahta, an expert in the film industry, there is a "huge backlog" of films with projected production expenses of 50 billion rupees ($668 million).
The director went on to say that "at least one significant picture will be released every week."
The release of Reliance Entertainment's 83, a sports biopic about India's maiden Cricket World Cup victory, has been delayed by more than a year, and will debut on Christmas Eve this year.
According to Shibasish Sarkar, the former CEO of Reliance Entertainment and current head of media business IMAC, the company's box office revenue in 2019-20 was anticipated to be $40 million. "This was before COVID," he said. "We are hoping (and wishing) for the best for the next releases."
When the epidemic shut down theatres in a nation where attending to the movies has long been a major feature of cultural life, the sudden increase in subscriptions to streaming services was a welcome development.
As smartphone penetration continues to soar, US media behemoths Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video, and Disney's Hotstar have hurried to capitalize on the growing number of online consumers.
However, Jayla of INOX said that movie theatre owners were undeterred by the competition. "People are returning to the theatres... and there are numerous more huge movies in the works," says the director.
0 Comments