The interval theatre owners don’t want

In the wake of soaring COVID19 cases a sense of fear has gripped the film industry Discussions about an impending halt on theatrical releases finally took centrestage after makers of Shahid Kapoorrsquos Jersey pushed the film from its December 31 release dateCinema halls in Delhi have been temporarily shut down and a similar development in Mumbai is anticipated as cases inch close to the 1400mark dailyRanveer Singh in 83 right A still from RRRTrade analyst Taran Adarsh doesnrsquot deny that the theatre industry could see another period of lull but he doesnrsquot see the need to fret just yet ldquoAs of now SS Rajamouli has assured us that RRR which is the biggest panIndia film of recent times will release on January 7 They have hosted an event in Kerala today as wellrdquoHe acknowledges that the closure of cinema halls in the capital has come as a blow ldquoItrsquos a big market for Bollywoodrdquo he says but highlights that with RRR releasing as scheduled other filmrsquos from the distributorrsquos stable are also likely to hit the marquee ldquoPen Filmsrsquo Jayantilal Gada is the Hindi distributor of the film He will also distribute Attack that releases late in January The next few weeks are crucial to predict the fate of Hindi films Akshay Kumarrsquos Prithviraj is also among themrdquoTaran AdarshWhile filmmakersrsquo decision is only one part of the issue Adarsh admits that boxoffice collections wonrsquot look promising unless people are willing to head to theatres The lukewarm performance of Ranveer Singhstarrer 83 he says has only aggravated their fears ldquoThe film held fort in the metros but it hasnrsquot earned as much as people had expectedrdquo The wordofmouth promotions too he suggests did little to improve its performanceWhile one may blame the rising cases as reason behind the filmrsquos lacklustre Rs 60 crore collection Adarsh points to the fact that collections of SpiderMan or Pushpa which also released recently werenrsquot compromisedldquoWe can make several excuses but that wonrsquot change the fact that a lot of people didnrsquot watch 83 in theatres It is worrisome but as the industry adage goes you win some you lose somerdquoMeanwhile Gaiety Galaxy owner Manoj Desai says that while they are currently functioning at 50 per cent capacity they may be forced to air reruns if filmmakers continue to defer releases ldquoThis may continue until a huge announcement of another release is made Now filmmakers are again scared to release their films It is a scary situationrdquo