Recovery dims for film exhibition business in April

Exhibitors count on Eid for big releases

The spate of localised lockdowns in Maharashtra, Delhi, and other parts of the country has hit the domestic film exhibition business in April, an important period in the summer season.

Producers of big-budget movies Thalaivi and Sooryavanshi, starring Kangana Ranaut and Akshay Kumar, respectively, have joined five other film-makers to postpone their April releases, leaving silver screens dark for the month.

Multiplex operators, who were seeing recovery rates of 20-25 per cent in terms of ticket sales in the January-march period due to a combination of Hindi, English, and regionallanguage films, were hoping to double this number in April as producers began lining up their big releases for the period.

Now, many of them are counting on Eid in mid-may for fresh content to return, including the much-anticipated Salman-khan-starrer Radhe. Film industry sources say Radhe may be shifted to Bakri Eid in July if the Covid19 situation remains grim in May. India added over 200,000 daily coronavirus cases on Friday, though the number could reduce in the weeks ahead as non-essential movement is curbed.

“Much will depend on how the Covid scenario evolves,” says Devang Sampat, chief executive officer, Cinepolis India. “But we remain optimistic that cases should possibly peak out by May in time for cinemas to reopen in states such as Maharashtra. Hopefully, other states too may reduce their lockdown curbs by then,” he says.

While Maharashtra is in the middle of a 15-day lockdown ending April 30, Delhi announced a weekend curfew on Thursday apart from more curbs to break the chain of transmission of the coronavirus. Other parts of north India, including Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, have announced stringent measures to curtail the spread of the virus.

Occupancy at cinemas in most of these states has been capped at 50 per cent or below. Delhi, for instance, has a 30 per cent cap on occupancy during the week and a closure on weekends. Maharashtra has opted to keep cinemas shut during 15day lockdown this month.

“All of this will be a drag on the film exhibition business in the near term,” says Karan Taurani, vice-president, research, Elara Capital. “The spillover impact is also becoming visible. Kerala, too, has reduced occupancy to 30 per cent at cinemas to curb the spread of the virus. Some more states could join the list in the weeks ahead,” he says.

Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana are also seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases, prompting the state governments to be on high alert.

“The southern markets were performing well since January in terms of footfalls and ticket sales,” says Kunal Sawhney, senior vice-president, operations, Carnival Cinemas. “For instance, the Telugu remake of the movie Pink, which released last week, has crossed collections of ~70 crore in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana so far. The trend has been no different for Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada-language films. But if curbs grow, business could suffer,” he says.