HYDERABAD: It’s been five days since the activities in the Telugu cinema industry have been put on hold due to the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. With no releases in sight and the shootings and other events suspended due to the scare, Tollywood is being hit hard. The abrupt halt is more worrying because it comes at a time when a regular stream of films are set for release during the lucrative summer holiday season.
The livelihood of several employees, who work for daily wages and paycheck to paycheck, has been affected. The pandemic is also beginning to pack a devastating punch to several producers, who seem worried about their financial situation if the Covid-19 outbreak extends towards next month.“A lot of work needs to be completed and it all came to a grinding halt. I may dip into my savings, but it’s going to be tough for daily workers and several others to scrape by. The real issue begins if this goes into the next month as the production houses can’t absorb the cost of the delay and trade bodies too find it hard to carry out,” says producer Suresh Babu Daggubati.
The present shut down would mean a loss of around Rs 8 crore per day, according to some of the Telugu film trade analysts. “The latest releases like Kanulu Kanulanu Dochayante, Angrezi Medium and Baaghi 3 among others are the most affected as people are not turning up to watch films due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Even after the theatres’ resume operations, these films may find it difficult to continue the run due to prior agreements. While it is difficult to quantify how much loss would incur to the industry at the moment, the situation looks unstable,” observes Suresh.
Producer Y Ravi Shankar says that they are maintaining the status quo regarding the release date of their upcoming film Uppena. “Theatres were shutdown for three-four days in 2018 and shootings were stalled due to employees strike in 2014. However, this is a first-of-its-kind situation where the government has ordered to close the theatres due to a pandemic. It’s hard to predict the magnitude of the loss, but it is something that we cannot take lightly. We will wait till March 31 to take a call on whether to release our film on April 2 or not,” says Ravi Shankar.
DVV Danayya, who is producing SS Rajamouli’s period action entertainer RRR says the delay in production hasn’t put the team under pressure. “We are concerned about the safety of our cast and crew. However, we are not worried about the delay as we have meticulously planned all the schedules and I don’t think this would lead to an additional financial burden. We also pushed our film’s release from July 31 to January 8 and we have enough time to wrap up the remaining portions,” says Danayya.He is optimistic that the crisis will eventually end and when it does, he says, “the situation will improve.”