Earlier today, the Delhi government decided to shut down the cinema halls effective immediately due to the rise in Covid-19 cases. Soon after the news broke out, the makers of Jersey decided to postpone the release of the film. Starring Shahid Kapoor and Mrunal Thakur in the lead roles, Jersey was slated to release on December 31. But, due to the surge in Covid cases, the team released a statement announcing that the release date of the film has been postponed.
After Jersey’s release date got postponed, other filmmakers might follow suit. To get the idea of the current situation, IndiaToday.in spoke to film exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi. Speaking exclusively about films like RRR, Radhe Shyam, Akshaye said, “For a Hindi film and for films that have Pan India target in terms of it’s audience which are RRR and Radhe Shyam, Delhi is big enough market for them to relocate what they want to do and that’s a bit unfortunate. I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of other movies follow the same after Jersey and try to push the release date after this.”
Cinema halls have become a soft target of late. They are the first to take a hit and last to revive. When asked about the same, Akshaye responded,” What’s need to be pointed out here is that or rather what needs to be questioned is the rationality of this decision by the state government of Delhi. For a simple reason that shutting down establishments collectively is never ever going to contain the spread of the third wave potentially. Either you ensure a complete lockdown which obviously the economy can’t afford at this point of time or bring in sensitive measures and start penalising people who don’t follow the Covid guideline. Penalising the establishment is not going to contain the virus it’s only pushing such establishment, business and lacks jobs towards thief coffin and that will not help to curb the third wave or the economy.”
He further added, “I would like Mr Arvind Kerjeriwal and others who are contemplating this kind of measures to be rational about what they are doing before taking steps of these sorts.”
Talking about the losses filmmakers will suffer he said, “Delhi as a territory contributes to almost about 15 per cent of the countries business and losing out on that at the time like this and when Maharashtra theaters, which is the biggest market, running on 50 per cent occupancy will turn a film from being a feasible release to an unfeasible one for a lot of films. Especially the ones that see the Metro cities as their major markets. It is extremely unfortunate.”
He concluded by saying, “I don’t blame filmmakers who are trying to postpone their releases, but I strictly think that the decision to shut down cinema halls entirely and keep everything else open is not rational. This will not help in containing the wave nor will it help the economy.”
Meanwhile, sources close to production houses whose films are up for release in the coming days revealed that further decisions on the release of the films will be taken in the coming days.
ALSO READ| Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey release postponed amid rising Covid-19 cases
ALSO READ| More curbs for Delhi as Covid-19 cases rise: Theatres-malls shut, restaurants at 50% seating