With Mumbai theatres shut, will Bollywood move to OTT?

Sooryavanshi has been postponed The Akshay KumarKatrina Kaif starrer cop action drama which was supposed to be Bollywoods first mega release of the year on April 30 has been pushed with no new release date announced The reason of course is the current Covid situation in MaharashtraThe buzz is the production houses backing the film Reliance Entertainment Dharma Productions Rohit Shetty Picturez and Cape of Good Films were never keen on putting up Sooryavanshi an extravagant Rohit Shetty entertainer for a directtoOTT release According to sources the makers are now assessing the situation They will make a formal announcement around April 10 if they plan to drop the film directly on OTT irrespective of whether it gets a theatrical releaseTeam Sooryavanshi postpones the release of the film The Honorable Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr Uddhav Thackeray had a discussion with director Rohit Shetty yesterday In the meeting Mr Uddhav Thackeray appreciated Rohit Shetty as he took the brave and difficult decision of postponing Sooryavanshi owing to the current COVID situation in the state a statement issued by the makers of tye film on Monday evening readsWhile Bollywood is in a tizzy over the current shutdown of cinema business in Maharashtra one of the most important markets for Hindi films the fate of Sooryavanshi could have ramifications on film trade trends far beyond just the film Being one of the most important Bollywood biggies of the year the decision whether such a huge film goes directly to OTT could set the course for other films as far as future exhibition trends go at least for now in an industry that is quick to adapt herd mentalityWhen cinemas opened up after last years lockdown Bollywood was quick to announce a rich lineup of films beginning March this year right up to the yearend Mumbai Saga among the first big commercial films to release in cinemas fared below expectations what with the public maintaining a cautious stance about visiting theatres Still the big films of big banners were undeterred and insisted they would go ahead with releaseAmong the mosthyped films whose release dates were confirmed over the next months were the Ranveer Singhstarrer cricket drama 83 Salman Khans Eid 2021 release Radhe Akshay Kumars Bell Bottom and Prithviraj the Ayushmann Khurranastarrer Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui and the period drama Shamshera starring Ranbir Kapoor and Sanjay DuttWhile no announcement has been made on any of the above films yet release of the first lot of films which were to open over the next few weeks was already postponed even before the Maharashtra government officially decided to shut down halls owing to the second wave of Covid These include the Amitabh BachchanEmraan Hashmi starrer Chehre the Rani MukerjiSaif Ali Khan starrer Bunty Aur Babli 2 and Rana Daggubatis Haathi Mere SaathiNow rumours abound that makers of many of these films are weighing the option of directtoOTT release and that negotiations might be on with digital platformsThe film trade however would prefer to stay optimistic at this point Most trade experts would rather take a waitandwatch stanceThese are speculations we need to wait for the official announcements The theatres have shut down so people tend to believe that big films will release on OTT But lets not speculate These filmmakers might postpone and release in the theatres trade analyst Taran Adarsh tells IANSFilmmaker Atul Mohan feels the situation right now is definitely uncertainWe might have official announcements in a few days Whenever a project is delayed 10 to 15 per cent of the budget is lost You need to restructure the schedules get dates Plus you have to pay interest on the budget For a 100crore film 15 to 20 crore worth interest is charged in a year he saysMohan adds Theatres have been shut in Maharashtra and these account for more than 40 per cent of box office collections Its a huge market and cannot be ignoredFilm trade experts are unanimous in agreeing that due to Covid the film industrys monetary suffering has only been worsening over the months since the first lockdown in March last yearIn 2019 we made a profit of Rs 4400 crore but last year in three months we made only Rs 600 crore and this year we have made only Rs 55 crore The profit was going up but now most of it has been lost We lost Rs 35004000 crore in 2020 I dont see movies making this kind of money in the near future says MohanThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever