Big Bollywood movies may face coronavirus heat
Film events such as IIFA 2020 have been postponed for now
Some of the biggest films in Bollywood face an uncertain future thanks to the virus. The film business is in for a rough ride in the crucial March-may period. Nearly ~500-crore worth of business is riding on films such as Baaghi 3, Sooryavanshi, 83, and Coolie No 3, which are releasing during this period.
Some of the biggest films in Bollywood face an uncertain future thanks to a crown-shaped virus. As suspected cases of coronavirus steadily increase in India, the film business is in for a rough ride in the crucial March-may period.
Nearly ~500-crore worth of business is riding on films such as Baaghi 3, Sooryavanshi, 83, and Coolie No 3 that are releasing during this period.
The first of them, Baaghi 3, starring Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor, which released on Friday, has already felt the heat with footfalls at theatres in Mumbai, Delhi and other metros down at least 20-30 per cent, trade sources told Business Standard. This comes as people avoid crowded and enclosed spaces for fear of catching the virus, which has no known cure yet.
Friday’s box office business of Baaghi 3 will be known by Saturday morning, since shows run late into the night, the sources said. Executives of Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment and Fox Star Studios, who have produced the film, were not immediately available for comment.
But Karan Taurani, vice-president, research, Elara Capital, says advance ticket bookings of Baaghi 3 have been impacted 35 per cent and total collections in the next few weeks could fall 20 per cent to ~160 crore from ~200 crore estimated earlier.
“Q4FY20 (fourth quarter of financial year 2019-20) is turning out to be the worst quarter for Bollywood in two years, because of coronavirus,” he said.
If the trend is anything to go by, other films could face a similar fate, too, said industry sources. Sources at Reliance Entertainment — which is producing Akshay Kumar-starrer Sooryavanshi and sport drama 83, featuring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone — say they are monitoring the situation closely.
Leading multiplex operators that Business Standard spoke to said that they had not received intimations yet from film producers to push back releases.
However, Hollywood releases have been pushed back, including Daniel Craig-starrer No Time to Die and Tom- Cruise headlined Mission Impossible 7, which will now be released at the end of the current calendar year.
Film events such as the IIFA 2020, to be held end of the month, have been postponed for now. Globally, films such as The Invisible Man, which released last week, and Pixar’s Onward that released on Friday, are seeing a business impact in China, Italy and the US, markets where coronavirus cases have been high.
In India, Ayushmann Khurrana’s Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan has seen business slip in the second week, following its release on February 28. From ~44.84-crore collection in the first week, the film lost steam in the second week, collecting only ~14.1 crore, said trade experts. Analysts like Taran Adarsh have termed the business as average.
One more film, Thappad, starring Taapsee Pannu, has seen its collections steadily decline from Monday trailing to ~1.65 crore, in terms of collection on Thursday.
Adarsh said that Thappad had found patronage in the Delhi-nrc region in the last two weeks. But given the outbreak in Delhi over the last two days, footfalls in theatres are likely to dwindle, trade sources said.
In a report on Friday, Abneesh Roy, executive vice-president, research (institutional equities), Edelweiss, said the brokerage expected coronavirus to sting multiplex operations in the near term. “We expect waning footfalls as virus-wary consumers shun high-density areas as well as modest content performance in Q4FY20,” he said.