Big-ticket films on hold, Bollywood stares at loss of ₹1,300 cr

nNEWDELHI: With large parts of the world in lockdown on account of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, India’s Hindi entertainment industry — one of the biggest in the world — is staring at a likely revenue loss upwards of ~1,300 crore, based on predicted domestic net collections of 12 big-ticket films that either released in March or were to be released in April and May.

To be sure, these figures are average estimates provided by several industry trade analysts HT spoke to, and offer only an indication of how much money a film could have earned, based on many factors such as the number of shows and screens, and actors starring in the film.

“In the last two years, the industry made around ~850-900 crore in net collections in the April-june quarter. We’re definitely losing that amount,” trade analyst Atul Mohan said.

To understand the pandemic’s impact on Bollywood, let’s take a look at the weekend everyone in the film industry looks forward to: Eid weekend.

May 22 (a Friday) was to be the big clash between Salman Khan’s Radhe and Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi Bomb. In 2019, the Eid film release, Bharat, collected ~150.1 crore. In 2018, Race 3 collected ~106.47 crore. So this year, the weekend collection of both films was pegged at a conservative ~175 crore.

RELEASE STALLED

Sooryavanshi, starring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif

Gulabo Sitabo, starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Amitabh Bachchan

’83, starring Ranveer Singh

Coolie No 1, starring Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan

Radhe, starring Salman Khan Laxmmi Bomb, starring Akshay Kumar