–Ariba Neyaz
The Ministry of Home Affairs declared an end to the 68-day national lockdown on Saturday considering the grave impact it was unleashing on the Indian economy. A new version of lockdown with the phased opening of activities has finally showered some rays of hope for entertainment industry. Like so many other sectors, the lockdown has made a serious dent on the financial well-being of Indian cinema industry.
The pandemic has taken the shine off from the world’s most prolific industry. Production companies called off shoots, cinema halls locked their doors and various big releases got postponed. And eventually, the fate of many ongoing projects got sealed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24, announced a 21-day national lockdown.
Curiously awaited films like Rohit Shetty’s multi-starrer Sooryavanshi on super-cops and Kabir Khan’s 83 on India’s world cup-winning cricket team were called off. Kabir khan said it has been ‘very disappointing’ to make that call while giving an interview to a YouTube channel, Film Champion. According to Shailesh Kapoor, founder, and CEO of Ormax Media, the total loss from the all-India box office revenues are evaluated to be around 2,500 crores in the last 2.5 months and the Hindi film industry accounts for 45-50% of it.
While the Hindi film industry is considered to be the dominant part of the industry, there are also other eminent regional players including Telugu, Marathi, Bhojpuri and Bengali film industries that have struck with huge loses. Filmmaker and distributor Madhura Sreedhar Reddy said the Telugu film industry was expected to earn around 400 crores this summer.
Among all the big names and faces, the most hard-hit are those who play small supportive roles and earn daily wages in the film Industry. The industry has been a resort of employment generation since ages, though with the dismantled shoots, the daily earners are struggling to make their living. Now it remains to be seen how the labor-intensive industry cope up with this challenge.
At a time when Indian cinema is grappling with the competition of Digital media (OTT) platforms which are thriving with alternative means of ‘mindscape’, the cinema shut down has further tilt the balance in the favour of new platforms. These OTT — Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hotstar plus Disney– have seen a sudden surge in the number of their subscribers amid lockdown. The rising popularity of these platforms has left many big films rushing to book their spots to get released through digital screens. Irfan Khan’s English Medium gained a lot of popularity when it found a home in Hotstar plus Disney, one of India’s most popular digital platforms. And now Shoojit Sircar’s Gulabo Sitabo has been moved to the digital platform, Amazon Prime.
Despite the availability of portable theaters in our hands, it is important to start thinking about this new era of Indian cinema. Digital platforms might have great potential for filmmakers and even for actors, but the whole industry with a variety of manpower involved, can’t survive like this forever. So now the question that one faced with is what does life look ahead for the industry in unlock 1.0?
There are a ton of challenges for the industry to overcome in order to revive itself. The first issue is about maintaining a healthy work environment. The containment and sanitization costs for sets, production equipment, makeup rooms, and theaters will extensively go up which may lead to budget constraints.
The Ministry of Home affairs hasn’t decided on the date of reopening the cinema halls yet. So, the second thing to think over is; will there be enough film options for cinema halls? With abandoned shoot sites and unclear guideline, the industry will need time to get back on track. Hence, even after the reopening of cinema halls, there will be a shortage of films to be released.
The third and the most critical issue is re-imagining the content to keep the Indian cinema relevant amid substantial shift of demand. Even the traditional movie-goers are now enamoured of the OTT bandwagon. Thus, some drastic changes will be required in the way stories are narrated, in order to compete with the abundance of stories available digitally. To put it pithily, the focus of Indian cinema should be on the future consumption.
It is quite possible that this tool of mass communication will also serve as a propaganda machinery to justify all the major errors made by the government during this natural catastrophe. But, with the unceasing upswing of the virus, it seems unlikely to achieve something to this effect.
The issue of the decline of the cinema mileage amid the health and economic crisis may sound like a lavish affair to most. But, I believe that this new era of cinema 2.0 holds great potential of resetting our society, not only by mirroring the reality that prevails around us but also, with the magic of escapism it provides.
(Ariba Neyaz is a final-year undergraduate student of journalism in Delhi University and is also a budding filmmaker. the views expressed are personal)
