THAT SINKING FEELING

THEATRES

- Suhani Singh

It was all going as per script for the cinemas. On December 16, Kamal Gianchandani, president of the Multiplex Association of India, in a press release euphorically declared “The Big Screen is Back”. The film industry was basking in the success of Sooryavanshi, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Pushpa. The Marvel franchise had raked in Rs 202 crore net at the box office while Allu Arjun-starrer Pushpa: Chapter I crossed Rs 200 crore. With the release of more crowd-pulling titles lined up in 2022, there was optimism. Then came news that party pooper Covid-19 was back again, this time with the Omicron variant.

The third wave's first big casualty was S.S. Rajamouli's Rs 550-crore action period drama RRR. With a substantial swathe of theatrical business share cut with the shutdown of cinemas in the national capital region (NCR) and with many states reducing occupancy to 50 per cent, the makers had little choice but to once again delay the release. Trade report say Rs 18-20 crore was already spent to promote the film.

Still, the film industry isn't immediately hitting the panic button. There's hope that the fatalities and cases of hospitalisation will be less in the third wave. “It will test our patience for a month or two but beyond that it certainly looks like movies will thrive in theatres again," says Akshaye Rathi, cinema owner and exhibitor. “We now know that people are willing to come back to theatres in massive numbers; there's no change in consumption habits.” The proof is the success of Sooryavanshi which earned Rs 192 crore at the box office, a significant chunk of this coming from Maharashtra where cinemas were running at half capacity.

₹500 crore Box office returns of Hindi cinema in 2021 compared to the Rs 3,900 crore it earned in pre-Covid 2019