After the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown the film industry is struggling with theatrical runs as it has been hardly hit by the pandemic and as a result the theaters had been shut down. However, the theaters are now running with 50 per cent occupancy, because of which the films which got released in theaters have not shown encouraging performances, hence, film makers are not willing for theatre releases.
But a release of a Tamil film ‘Mater’ on 13 January, has registered a silver lining for all the producers. Despite its shows being running with 50 per cent occupancy, it is breaking records everyday from its release. “Master’s success has proven that film content will be rewarded by the audiences no matter whatever the circumstances are”, said a toplined film distributor Shibu Thameen. “Master’s success has paved the way for upcoming releases in the months of February, March April”, he added.
Some big tickets films like ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, ‘Sooryavanshi’, ‘Radhe: Most Wanted Bhai’, ‘83’ are all biding time for a better release in theatres, and Master has proven this the right time to do so.
With the positive outcome of this Tamil release, there are other things like, India is starting its vaccination program from today, which will normalize the situation and hit life back to normal. All these things are an encouraging sign for the entertainment industry to do its business as before. “The only reason why our business has not regained its vigour is because people are not getting the content that they want to watch,” said an exhibitor Akshaye Rathi.
Understanding the need of quality content as proven by release of ‘Master’, we can plan for ‘Sooryavanshi’ ‘83’, and others, said Rathi. “If they are not released, then it might lead to closure of more theatres and we will have to fight for release dates later”, he added
However, not everyone is of the opinion as of Akshaye Rathi. A distributor Ramesh Sippy who has also released ‘Master’ in Mumbai, is also happy by the results of ‘Master’ but does not think of releasing of big ticket films of bollywood, because south audiences have a different temperament towards their actors as they consider them as their God but in bollywood it is not so.
