Indian film industry has once again been hammered by covid-19’s adverse impact. After what appeared to be a revival in the film business in February, it is now grappling with uncertainty once again since April.
While the entire film industry is worst hit by rise in COVID-19 cases, the impact on Hindi films or Bollywood is observed to be high. This is because Bollywood delayed releases despite theatres being permitted to reopen since October 2020.
With theatres certain to remain closed until May 15 in several parts of the country, the hope seem to end in damp squib. Theatrical revenue that constitutes a major portion of a film’s earnings looks to be in irreparable losses for this mid year.
According to analyst Karan Taurani, who closely keep abreast of the updates related to the media and entertainment space affirmed that first half of this year will see a loss of 70% in the economy and the retrieval is expected from September onwards.
Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media, a media consulting firm, stated that during January-March, when theatres opened up, and many big films were out in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, Bollywood deferred the releases hoping to bounce back soon. But no revenue was generated except Roohi and Mumbai Saga. The total collections of all Hindi films in 2021 till date are just about Rs 50 crore.