Cinema Industry in India

The starting of the year 2020 saw content taking the center stage with some of the best performing films in the past decade. Films like: Tanhaji, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Malang, Chhapaak, Love Aaj Kal etc, were among the highest grossing films of the year.

But, with the out break of Coronavirus in December 2019 and with its effect being felt in March 2020, specially in India, the Central and State Government adopted policies to restrict social interaction among people and took precautionary steps to enforce ‘Social distancing’ by shutting down production units, institutions and other establishments.

Big films like Sooryavanshi, directed by Rohit Shetty and produced by Karan Johar and Rohit Shetty, was supposed to be released on 24th March 2020 but was postponed due to the outbreak. Similarly, Yash Raj Films also postponed the release of their next film Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar because of the pandemic.

Not only Hindi films but also the big Hollywood movies such as the new Bond film- No Time to Die, also postponed their release date.

While films like Angerzi Medium which was released on 13th March, one week before the lock-down, is expected to earn ₹ 10.21 Cr only. The film got good opening and received excellent reviews both from the critics as well as the audience, was expected to do good business, but due to the lock-down of Malls, Movie Halls etc, the film’s earning got affected severely.

The production cost of the movies to be released in the month of March and April was near around 290+ crores alone. The release dates of films play very critical role in the overall earnings. If a film is not released on the right day, it can cause a sever damage to film’s revenue as there are other films waiting to eat the revenue of their competitors’ film.

In simple terms, the outbreak has caused severe damage to the Cinema Industry in India. While the exact damage in terms of numbers will be known only after the lockdown.