Coronavirus strikes Bollywood films, awards ceremonies

Gulf News

Here's a list of Bollywood films that has postponed its release due to the global health scare  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos  Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  #Bollywood #Coronavirus #COVID19

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00:00On March 15th, Sunday, we learned that all the cinemas in Dubai have been temporarily asked to shut down.

00:07Shows have been suspended, all the movie screenings have been suspended until March 31st.

00:15What does this two-week ban mean for Bollywood cinema, which is one of the most high-profile

00:21and money-making industries in the world? The harsh reality is that a string of movies,

00:26movie releases, launches and shootings and award ceremonies have been put off due to the growing

00:34health concerns. We have put together a list of Bollywood films which have been adversely affected.

00:39We'll start with Angrezi Medium. Angrezi Medium, which was touted as Irrfan Khan's comeback vehicle

00:44after his battle with cancer, was a very warm tale. It garnered positive reviews but it was not

00:49really allowed to gather steam because after the end of third day of its release, all the cinemas

00:55in Dubai shut down and in the UAE. Director Homi Ajania made a very pragmatic decision to say that

01:02they will re-release the movie Angrezi Medium in Indian cinemas once their theatres open to the

01:09public. As of now, producers, directors, distributors and all actors are colluding together to find out

01:16the best way to deal with the ongoing health crisis around the world. One of the first movies

01:20to be delayed is Sandeep and Pinky Farah starring Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra. It was supposed

01:26to release on March 19th but due to the growing concerns over health and the shutting down of

01:31cinemas, Yash Raj Films, its producers, put out a tweet saying that for the safety of the people,

01:37they've decided to postpone the film. A new date is yet to be set and it's directed by Dibakar

01:43Banerjee. If you had seen the trailer launch of Suryavanshi, you know that they were planning a

01:47very high-profile launch for the movie and they were trying to build as much hype around it.

01:52Unfortunately, things did not go smooth for Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar and all the on-screen cops of

01:57this film. We all know that the makers of Suryavanshi ensured that there was a lot of hype

02:02surrounding the trailer release. They even decided to release their movie on March 24th which was

02:08like a Tuesday so that they can generate hype and make good use of the days that they get in advance.

02:14They tried all their marketing strategies up their sleeve. However, due to coronavirus, they

02:19had to now put off their March 24th release which also means that Ranveer Singh's 83 will also be

02:26affected. It was supposed to be an April 1st week release. The way things are going, I have a feeling

02:31that 83 starring Ranveer Singh will also be delayed. It's not just the blockbusters that

02:36were negatively impacted. There's also the festival-friendly movie called Sir which stars

02:41Tilotima Sharma. We were looking forward to the March 20th release in India but we have been told

02:45that that's also been put off. Another development of coronavirus outbreak is also how the filming

02:52have been stalled temporarily. There is Shahid Kapoor who took to Twitter and told us that the

02:57filming of his movie Jersey where he plays a failed cricketer has been put on hold temporarily. He does

03:04not want to risk the health of his crew etc. And then there is of course Salman Khan. I know that

03:09Salman Khan is known to flout rules but in this case, we have been told that although they are

03:14continuing to film in India, in Mumbai, they have put off the filming of scenes where it required

03:20them to travel to Azerbaijan. So, they have excluded foreign travel of late. Another development is that

03:26award ceremonies in Bollywood have also been put off. If you look at it, the Zee Cine Awards 2020

03:31which was held in Mumbai was a closed door affair. We had stars like Hrithik Roshan, Ranveer Singh,

03:37Taapsee Pannu. There was no red carpet function. So, what they had was a televised event closed door

03:43where everything was orchestrated. So, there were no ticketed crowds cheering them on etc.

03:48Even IFA 2020 which was supposed to be held in Madhya Pradesh in India has been postponed

03:54indefinitely. A new date is yet to be set. I've been talking to many distributors in the region,

03:59industry sources and experts and they all tell me that putting movies off for a larger good

04:04is something that they will respect but it remains uncertain about the kind of

04:09losses they would suffer. The list will grow as the week goes along and perhaps

04:13more movies will be postponed. We'll give you all the updates. Keep watching.

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