Akshay Kumar's Sooryavanshi postponed, film industry braces for more losses

With the Maharashtra government imposing the weekend lockdown to curtail rising cases of COVID19 and Sooryavanshi producers announcing the postponement of the films release industry insiders say theatrical business is staring at huge losses The entertainment sector was in the recovery mode with theatre chains operating to full capacity from February in different parts of the country even though the occupancy remained at 50 per cent in Maharashtra which has now announced a weekend lockdown from 8 pm on Friday to 7 am MondayThe night curfew will continue to be imposed in the state and strict restrictions will be in force from Monday 8 pm onwardsProducers exhibitors and distributors say they are looking at an uncertain time ahead with the makers of the highlyanticipated Akshay Kumarstarrer Sooryavanshi on Monday announcing that they were postponing the release The theatrical release of Amitabh Bachchanstarrer Chehre and Rani MukerjiSaif Ali Khanstarrer Bunty Aur Babli 2 were already pushedVinod Bhanushali President of Media and Marketing Publishing TV and Music and coproducer of several TSeries films told PTI that its unlikely that the big movies will release in the current situationBollywood calendar is again going to be affected We had a release in May during Eid lsquoSatyameva Jayate 2rsquo and at the moment we are looking to arrive on that dateHowever we will gauge the situation closer to the release of the film and take a call accordingly The industry must stand in solidarity with regards to film releasesrdquo Bhanushali saidProducer Anand Pandit who has postponed Chehre hopes the industry will emerge stronger from the virusldquoThe virus has been manipulating our lives and we must trust our leaders and healthcare workers to make the decisions for us The lockdown will have an impact but will people actually be entertained if they are worried about their health Pandit told PTIExhibitors are more disheartened by the news of a weekend lockdown in Mumbai as these are crucial days of business for theatresNitin Datar President Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India said they will incur huge lossesldquoBefore reopening the halls last year we had spent a lot of money on improving the condition of theatres and maintaining COVID19 guidelines Our business had just begun with the release of some films earning decent collection in 50 per cent capacityThen night curfew happened and we lost out on two shows Now this decision has come Crores will be lost as the main business happens on weekendsrdquo he told PTITeam ldquoSooryavanshirdquo said diretor Rohit Shetty took the brave and difficult decision to postpone the films April 30 release The cop drama was originally set for release last yearExhibitor Sunny Chandaramani who has 18 to 20 singlescreen cinemas in Pune said they were bracing for another lull phase since they restarted in October last year after remaining shut for seven monthsldquoMaybe cinemas all over India will be closed again except the South market There will be huge losses We were looking forward to the release of lsquoSooryavanshirsquo Now with this situation the dreams of many theatre owners are shatteredrdquo he told PTIChandaramani estimates that Bollywood has lost about Rs 400 crore due to the state governmentrsquos new rule Personally he is looking at the loss of about Rs 30 to 40 lakh per month for all his theatresDatar also believes movie releases will be impacted due to the restrictions in Mumbai ldquoIf Maharashtra closes down entire India will be closed in a way as no one will release films So theatres in other regions will also be hitrdquo he saidExhibitor Akshaye Rathi who owns eight theatres in Maharashtra said its important to save lives but it is equally essential to save livelihoodsldquoIt is time for the state government to step in to protect the livelihood of lakhs of people who earn their bread directly or indirectly through this sectorrdquo Rathi told PTIRahul Bhandari who has 17 cinema halls in places like Nagpur Amravati among others in Maharashtra said shutting down cinemas is not the solutionldquoIn 50 per cent capacity there was hardly 15 per cent occupancy that too over weekends Cinemas have been closed for a year but COVID19 cases were still there The focus should be on creating awareness about the importance of wearing masks sanitization maintaining social distancing and vaccination driverdquo he saidTrade observer Himesh Mankad said release of Salman Khanstarrer ldquoRadhe Your Most Wanted Bhairdquo may also be pushed while ldquo83rdquo and ldquoSatyameva Jayate 2rdquo might take the OTT routeldquoThe exhibition sector will suffer the most as they would not have any films to show This might also lead to the shutting down of singlescreen theatres It is a bad scenariordquo Mankad told PTIRathi said the industry is hoping for some support from the state government after their meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on SundayHe said the exhibition sector suggested the state government grant policydriven support to the sector like retrospective waiver of property tax minimum demand charges of electricity for the period of closure financial benefits for films that decide to have a theatrical release in MaharashtraOn Sunday Mumbai recorded its highest singleday spike of 11163 new coronavirus cases taking the citys caseload to 452445This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever