South Indian cinemas aim for pre-Covid business highs with a string of big releases in January
Cinemas across several Indian states that went into lockdown in March 2020 opened their doors during November/December 2020 after implementing several Covid-safety measuring including making masks mandatory for staff and audiences and restricting the seating capacity to 50%. However, their reopening was met with a lukewarm response from audiences despite screening Hollywood blockbusters like Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984, which failed to rake in the moolah.
One of the reasons for the cinemas’ poor business is attributed to postponement of several regional big ticket entertainers, which were expected to draw in huge crowds, as big studios were undecided whether to release their films in the cinemas or on streaming platforms, and were playing the waiting game.
Bollywood theatrical releases in December – Kiara Advani’s Indoo Ki Jawani and Richa Chadha’s Shakeela – failed to draw audiences to the cinemas and were unsuccessful at the box office.
However, cinemas across South India portrayed a different picture. Telugu-language Christmas 2020 release “Solo Brathuke So Better”, despite the 50% occupancy cap and coronavirus concerns, managed to do good business and rang the bell of hope for cinema owners.
The pictures of long queues outside theatres screening Telugu-language film “Krack”, directed by Gopichand Malineni (Don Seenu) and starring Ravi Teja (Neninthe) and Shruti Haasan (Srimanthudu), that released in cinemas on Friday, 8 January suggests that audiences are no longer worried about the pandemic and prepared to go to the cinemas to watch big ticket “masala” films that guarantee entertainment.
“Masala” films in India usually feature a popular male and female lead(s) and have an entertaining (not necessarily original) plot with one or more twists in the storyline, adrenaline-rushing and crowd-pleasing dialogues, dramatic over-the-top action sequences with the protagonist single-handedly beating up scores of thugs that work for the antagonist, earsplitting background music, songs with the male and female leads dancing along with a number of supporting dancers, a good dose of funny scenes when things get a bit too serious and eventually a happy ending. These films usually guarantee the return on investment to its producers and distributors.
The weekend box office figures of “Krack” are not available yet, but the film is already being hailed as a blockbuster if reports are to be believed and raising hopes for the box office success of Tamil-language big ticket release “Master”, starring Vijay (Bigil), that is set to hit the cinemas across India on 13 January after being postponed from its original release date of 9 April 2020.
“Master” has been dubbed into Telugu and Hindi languages (titled “Vijay The Master”) and is expected to draw crowds into cinemas in Hindi-speaking states as well given there are no big-budget Bollywood releases in January.
Simbu’s Tamil film “Eeswaran” and Bellamkonda Sreenivas’ Telugu film “Alludu Adhurs”, both masala entertainers, are scheduled to release on 14th and 15th January, and are expected to draw in huge crowds to the cinemas over the Pongal/Sankranti holiday weekend.
“Eeswaran” is also being released in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi markets on 14 January alongside “Master”.
The Tamil Nadu state government removed the 50% seating capacity restrictions in cinemas last week, following a meeting with the makers of “Master”, however its decision was overturned by the federal government and the restriction is back in place.