With a barrage of upcoming big-ticket releases, Bollywood's attempt at reviving theatrical business is evident

Last Friday saw two theatrical releases – Roohi and Time to Dance – and there are about a dozen other films, with popular actors, lined up for release every single weekend from now until the end of April. Bollywood’s 2020 and 2021 release calendar was torn apart by the pandemic but it finally seems like things are getting back to normal. “People have started returning to theatres in large numbers. Earlier, we would have only youngsters coming in but increasingly we are beginning to see families and even groups of senior citizens. People are showing a lot of confidence in cinemas and that's a good sign,” says Kunal Sawhney, Sr VP, Carnival Cinemas

The Jahnvi Kapoor-Rajkummar Rao starrer according to a statement by producer Priyanka Chaudhary CFO, Jio Studios is playing in 2200 plus screens. It has also minted above Rs 12 crore at the box office over its opening weekend. “This number of screens are most likely lower because a lot of theatres, specially in the smaller centers, haven’t opened. And, even though the film’s reviews haven’t been very good, it’s doing decent business at the box office. You have to remember that the footfalls are going to be low initially,” says an industry expert, who requested to be anonymous.

This is Bollywood’s second attempt at kick-starting theatrical recovery in the last six months. It was just before Diwali last year that the Government started allowing theatres to reopen and Diljit Dosanjh, Manoj Bajpayee and Fatima Sana Shaikh’s Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari was the first Hindi film to release in theatres since March. The Zee Studio comedy failed to draw audiences and it was a dark Diwali with cancelled shows because of empty theatres. While films like Kiara Advani’s Indoo Ki Jawani and Richa Chadda’s Shakeela and Madam Chief Minister did hit theatres, most producers preferred to either stream their films or wait for a more favourable time.

The Bengali film industry, though, had a bumper festive season with 10 films releasing during Durga Puja, of which Dracula Sir and SOS Kolkata brought film buffs back in droves. Earlier this year, the Tamil film industry celebrated Pongal with the mega successful Master starring Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi that according to reports has earned Rs 250 crores theatrically before its streaming premiere on Amazon Prime. “The Telugu films – Ravi Teja’s Crack and Vijay Sethupathi’s Uppena have both done really well. And, Vijay was the only recognisable face in Uppena, which has a new hero, heroine and director. It’s obvious that people aren’t just coming to see films with stars, they are coming to watch good content and, also because there’s a sense of fatigue. People want to get back to normal life, with precautions of course,” says trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

The success of the South Indian films has given Bollywood the assurance that it’s time to get into recovery mode. After all, theatrical release accounted for 65 percent of the Indian film industry’s earnings in 2019 as per the FICCI-EY report released last March. Yash Raj, one of the few studios that refused to stream any of their films, was one of the first to announce their 2021 slate that includes films like Ranbir Kapoor’s Shamshera and Ranveer Singh’s Jayeshbhai Jordaar. Also confirmed are the release dates of Akshay Kumar’s period thriller BellBottom, which was one of the first films to start production during the pandemic and Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Jhund, which marks the Hindi directorial debut of the Sairat filmmaker Nagraj Manjule. “Just going by the line-up that’s already been announced, I am positive that we’ll be able to recover a lot of the losses we incurred last year,” says an upbeat Sawhney.

As of this week, there are still theatres that haven’t reopened but many in the trade, like Sawhney, are upbeat about this Friday’s release – Mumbai Saga. Set in the Mumbai of the 80s and 90s, this Sanjay Gupta film stars John Abraham and Emraan Hashmi. Its filmmaker, though, is understandably nervous. “I’ve never had to deal with this kind of unpredictability. No one knows what’s going to happen next week in the theatre,” he says referring to the rising cases of around the country and the announcements of lockdown in parts of Maharashtra, the largest domestic theatrical territory.

When makers of Master had announced the film’s release in January, there was a significant backlash online with people questioning the moral and social responsibility that big stars have towards their fans. “Why are people thinking that only theatres are a problem? We have beaches, malls, restaurants and bars open and cricket matches are being played in full stadiums. We can’t remain shut forever so it’s now up to people to stay safe,” says Gupta. Sawhney adds, “It's important to note that since last October when theatres reopened there's not been a single outbreak that local municipalities have traced back to a hall. All cinema chains are following all the necessary precautions”.

While the ailing exhibition business has been upbeat in recent weeks, there was some gloom because release dates of tentpole films like Salman Khan’s Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai and Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi hadn’t been announced. That’s changed this weekend with official announcements that the former will release on Eid (13 May) and the latter on 30 April. “Everyone has been looking for that one big film that would turn the tide and both these films have that potential. The big-ticket films from South that are multi-lingual like RRR, KGF Chapter 2 and Radhe Shyam have also announced their release dates,” says Adarsh.