WILL THE PANDEMIC CRIPPLE THE FILM INDUSTRY?

Top actors have tested positive for Covid-19, big budget films like Sooryavanshi and Thalaivi have been postponed and cinema halls have shut down again… Sumita Chakraborty wonders if the pandemic has made the future of Bollywood rather bleak?

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It’s kind of serious when Bollywood’s fittest actor tests positive for Covid-19 and is hospitalised. That’s right, we are talking about Akshay Kumar who tested positive followed closely by Vicky Kaushal, Katrina Kaif, Bhumi Pednekar to so many more who have all taken to social media to announce that they tested positive. Not just this, supposedly, 45 members who were supposed to start work on Akshay Kumar-starrer Ram Setu have also contracted the virus. The pandemic has snaked in rather close into Tinsel Town… and how! So much so that most shootings have been stalled or postponed.

2020 was a bad year for Bollywood - what with the lockdown, closing of theatres and shootings being stalled. Life changed drastically for Tinsel Town as the new norm took over the glitz ‘n’ glam of the past, bringing the industry to a rude standstill.

However, in June 2020 when the production of films resumed after a three-month-long hiatus, there was an overall sigh of relief all over. However, now things are back to square one especially after the imposition of stringent restrictions in Maharashtra in the wake of the rise in coronavirus cases.

Indeed, a big blow to the industry more so when Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a weekend lockdown and night curfew in Maharashtra till April 30 in the wake of rising corona cases.