Many producers have said that they don’t think people will feel free to watch movies in theatres until a vaccine is developed. And they are hoping that it will happen in 12 – 24 months time. Before that they cannot expect a full recovery and hence, they are planning for a phase wise release in theatres. Governments are not equipped enough to handle Covid-19 outbreak much more massive than it already is. Hence, the restrictions on theatres will be huge.
But as the theatres and malls form good percentage of income in the form of taxes for Governments, they cannot keep them shut for months or years together. They have to open them eventually and producers are calculating that Telangana government and even Andhra Pradesh Government will look to open malls, theaters by September as rainy season will be reaching it’s end. By the time, if any vaccine that is already developed is found to be effective on major strains of Corona virus, well and go. If not, they want to try out weekly one release for three months which includes the films that could not release and films that are ready for release post March.
Most releases will be from recognisable stars like Nani, Vijay Devarakonda, Naga Chaitanya, Akhil, Keerthy Suresh, Anushka and if film shoot is over, Aacharya starring Megastar Chiranjeevi. Looking at the public response to these films with social distancing rules in place, they will think about next releases, it seems. Some producers have to take losses during this time period predict the Industry bigwigs. So, will the governments really wait till August to open malls, theatres? Let’s wait and see.