With Coronavirus steadily encroaching the Indian soil, a lot is at stake, besides the health of the citizens. The global slowdown and the economy hit is a matter of concern for all. The entertainment industry has been hit quite significantly because of the pandemic.
Bollywood is not untouched. With filmmakers deciding to postpone the release of their films, for instance Sooryavanshi (earlier slated to hit theatres on March 24), this week Dinesh Vijan went ahead to bring the sequel of much-acclaimed film, Hindi Medium, to the theatres. Was the decision right? We spoke to a few trade analysts to understand.
Manoj Desai, owner G7 and Maratha Mandir, feels the situation is bad. "Angrezi Medium's opening has been very low, halat kharab hai. And what can be worse is if the government asks to shut down cinemas in Mumbai too, it will have big impact," he said.
Trade Analyst Taran Adarsh added, "The start is not good, it's quite poor. But that was expected. Delhi is a big market. It's not released there. Add to that, Kerala and Jammu. The Coronavirus is a global phenomenon, obviously who has entertainment on their mind?"
The big question here is why didn't the producer- Dinesh Vijan, Maddock Films and distributor Jayantilal Gada, Pen Films think about stopping the release of the film. We got in touch with Gada to know the same and he replied, "Dinesh had already done the overseas delivery. If we stopped the release in India, it would have been a big piracy concern for us, considering the film released yesterday in Dubai."
Amidst our conversation with Taran Adarsh, we asked if the makers of the film could have not gone ahead with the international delivery too a week back, since the Coronavirus scare was very much there even then. Taran replied, "They could have if they wanted to but I think no one anticipated Delhi closure. Things turned around from there."
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