Siddharth Anand Kumar, VP, TV and films, Saregama, says “Its worrying because livelihoods are at stake. There’s crores of rupees of investment stuck. Movie releases are getting pushed. Theatre owners are staring down at daily losses, each day the screens are closed. So yes, things are not looking good at the moment.
As producers at Yoodlee Films, we can only try and minimise our losses. We had a few
releases planned on the anvil, which we have to obviously hold back,
to ascertain a later release date. Luckily we had not started a marketing campaign for any. The films which are on the floor, or in
various stages of post production we have had to pause everything.
Safety needless to say is first. This is of course unprecedented.
But once this blows over, the spate of films : big, not-so-big, medium, all of them will be lining up for release. While there will be hits and misses, one hopes that the second quarter of the year will make up for the box office losses the industry is facing now.
Veteran producer, Anand Pandit also sounded worried, “While it is extremely sad that so many people are suffering from this pandemic, it is as important to remain calm and think rationally. We have to ensure as a country that we take all necessary precautions so it can be controlled. Panic is never the solution, being cautious is. Remember, this too shall pass." Anand Pandit is currently preparing for two big releases, both with the Bachchans, 'Chehre' with Big B while 'The Big Bull' which has Abhishek Bachchan.