Theatres shut down, mounting losses: How Bengali movie trade misplaced the battle throughout pandemic

Entertainment trade has been among the many worst affected sectors by the pandemic in India. Losses mounting as much as hundreds of crores, jobs reduce down and theatres that downed their shutters without end – it appears the full value remains to be being counted. In the regional Bengali trade, or Tollywood as it’s popularly recognized, the scene is not any totally different.
Producer and director Shiboprosad Mukherjee says for administrators the largest setback has been the restriction on the thought course of. “During regular instances, there’s a cycle – you’re doing a movie, it will get launched, you then embark on to the subsequent movie. But throughout these instances, as soon as a movie will get caught, the whole thought course of is stunted. Your imaginative and prescient is halted. Added to this, one’s peak time doesn’t final without end. With each passing 12 months, the inventive course of is slowed down. You are confronted with uncertainty because the movie you’re engaged on at the moment, loses its significance a 12 months later,’ he says.

The monetary loss has been horrible. Arindam Sil, director of ‘Mahananda’ that’s in post-production, admits that issues have come to a standstill for the reason that previous one and a half years. “The losses amounted to thousands of crores. Not only actors – technicians, vendors, equipment suppliers – all have been affected. In a year, we hardly make 40 to 50 films. If an average cost of a film is two crores, then the loss comes to 100 crores. Add to this the loss of added costs of vendors, suppliers, who have been left jobless. The loss has been extended to people who are directly or indirectly associated with cinema,” he says.
A nonetheless from Bengali movie Baba Baby O.
The closing down of cinema halls has added to the woes. “Every creation is like a discovery. Once you don’t have the film in the market, you never know whether it is working or not. As a producer I think unless one has a theatrical release one doesn’t know how the film will fare. You then get restricted to a whole lot of things – to experiment, to work with new actors. So how will the industry grow? There will be no surprise hits. One has to forgo making cinema for cinema’s sake, as it will no longer yield results,” says Shiboprosad.

Arindam says amongst 750 cinema halls, solely 250 are in a working situation. “Post the pandemic, even when 100 halls open, it’s a blessing. Plus, there’s a ripple impact to this. With 50 p.c occupancy, no common Bengali movie can get better prices. And we’ve got to simply accept that there’s not a lot demand for Bengali content material on OTT platforms. Internationally there must be another platform,’ he says. Despite a channel devoted to Bangla content material, HoiChoi, with footprint in West Bengal and Bangladesh, the presence of Bengali content material on main streaming channels has been restricted.
Shantilal Mukherjee, working secretary, Artists’ Forum, says individuals who labored every day or a month-to-month foundation are those who’ve been affected severely. “Plus, the closing down of cinema halls has been terrible. There are no films, there is no audience, even with 50 percent accommodation in halls, there is not half the audience,” he says.
Arijit Dutta, proprietor of common single display screen Priya cinema, is obvious heartbroken. ‘There is a huge deficit, crores have been lost, no halls are opening, yet salaries have to be paid. The financial situation is as bad as it can get,’ he says.

Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Limited agrees that the cinema exhibition trade suffered enormous losses and enterprise was impacted considerably because of lockdowns within the nation. “The cinema exhibition sector suffered massive financial losses, with thousands of screens countrywide forced to close down, and many employees, not just of cinemas, but even their supply chains and other stakeholders, facing personal hardship. The cinema exhibition sector is a critical part of a functioning film industry, directly employing lakhs of people and contributing to indirect employment of millions of people. With zero revenues in eight months (from March till November 2020), and thereafter meagre revenues in the last 5 months, the cinema exhibition industry is now facing possible bankruptcies,” he says.
Noted make-up artiste of National Award-winning movies Somnath Kundu is having a tough time making ends meet. ‘‘In normal times, I used to work in four to five films. Last year, I did only two films. This year too. I have two films in hand. I have suffered a loss of Rs 5 to 6 lakhs last year. It’s changing into troublesome to maintain my household going with this meagre work and quantity,’ he says.
Mahananda is helmed by Arindam Sil.
But administrators and producers usually are not keen to lose hope. As a producer Shiboprosad’s ‘Lokkhi Chhele’ and ‘Belashuru’ have been caught for launch since final 12 months. But he’s not sitting idle. Currently he has completed one other movie ‘Baba Baby O’, which he hopes will see the sunshine of the day very quickly. Producer Firdaus-ul-Hasan, who has produced ‘Mahananda’ is producing two extra movies – Atanu Ghosh’s subsequent and Anik Dutta’s subsequent. “We have overcome challenges before. There have been challenges with television, satellite channels and now, OTT. But in spite of all these, cinema had held forth on its own and stayed strong. To me, cinema is not an individual medium. It is a community activity, to be enjoyed jointly by family and friends. We had released ‘Dictionary’ in February 2020 which was houseful at Nandan. Then I embarked on ‘Mahananda’, which got stuck for seven to eight months. Now, the film is finished with its post-production on. I am also producing two more films, one by Atanu Ghosh and another by Anik Dutta. Am doing this because I am hopeful. That despite all odds cinema will strike back again with all its force and beauty,” he says.