Exclusive! Bollywood Likely To Suffer Loss Of Around Rs 600-900 Cr Due To Coronavirus Pandemic, Predicts Taran Adarsh

Film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh explains how the coronavirus pandemic has struck a huge blow to Bollywood and why would it take a long time for businesses to return to some sort of normalcy.

Mumbai: Film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh believes Bollywood is all set to bear an estimated loss of somewhere between Rs 600-900 crore due to the coronavirus pandemic. With cancelled shoots, delayed released and complete shutdown of most movie theaters country wide, the coronavirus outbreak has massively hit the prospects of big budget films in particular. The number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 110 on Sunday and most cinema halls (3,500 plus screens) have been shut down across India. The pandemic has struck a huge blow to the collections of recently released ‘Baaghi 3’. Tiger Shroff-starrer Baaghi 3 which released on March 6 has to bear the worse effect, as right from the first week itself, the coronavirus induced panic among movie goers. “There’s a loss of Rs 15-20 crore, especially in week two when theaters started to shut down," said Taran Adarsh. However, the film did quite well in the first week but the final numbers would have been different if the situation wasn’t that scary. The corona scare will take a toll on everyone associated to showbiz industry right from the producers to the distributors, actors and especially daily wage workers who work on film and television sets.  "The worst part is that there's an uncertainty as no one knows when the pandemic situation is going to die down as till 31 March 2020, there's a complete shutdown and even after that you are not sure if the situation will normalise or will go further down, so the month of March is severely hit by corona in Bollywood." The corona outbreak has also sent out jitters to the makers of highly anticipated upcoming films. The release of multi-starrer ‘Sooryavanshi’ with Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif in lead roles has been pushed to an unannounced date and so is the case of Kabir Khan’s directed Ranveer Singh's '83' which was supposed to release on April 10. The release date of both 83 & Sooryavanshi have been deferred. Taran Adarsh adds that since the entire chain of production, distribution and exhibition of these films has been abruptly halted, the losses could further mount to hundreds of crores. “I believe getting back to normalcy will take time, as even after situation gets better in coming months you don't expect people to throng the theaters at once, it will take time for movie lovers to come out and watch the film in cinema halls as everyone is going through a panicky situation right now,” he asserted. Adarsh said that the situation in international markets where Indian cinema does well is even more despondent as coronavirus cases there are far more as compared to India. The deadly coronavirus has claimed over 6,000 lives worldwide, with Italy recording its biggest daily death toll. In India health officials confirmed 110 positive cases in the country, with Maharashtra the worst affected with 33 cases.