Last year ‘2019’ without a doubt turned out to be the successful year for the Bollywood industry in terms of the entertainment factor, content, and box-office collection. Basically, 2019 has been considered a groundbreaking year which sets the box-office on fire because of many big releases like the below-mentioned top 10 films that show ‘Number never lie’. They earned so well at the box office that they become the highest-grossing films of the year 2019:

  • Super 30 (209 crores)
  • Chhichhore (213 crores)
  • Total Dhamaal (228crores)
  • Gully Boy (238 crores)
  • Housefull 4 (279 crores)
  • Mission Mangal (290 crores)
  • Bharat: (326 crores)
  • Uri: The Surgical Strike (343 crores)
  • Kabir Singh (379 crores)
  • War (475 crores)

Having the last year’s experience in mind, though definitely the latest releases (mentioned below) of the year 2020 increased the excitement of the film audiences; but the scenario of the year 2020 for the famous Bollywood seems to be a completely different story from the year 2019. 

  • Tanhaji
  • Chappak
  • Jai Mummy Di
  • Panga
  • Street Dancer
  • Jawaani Jaaneman
  • Malang
  • Love Aaj Kal 2
  • Bhoot Part 1 (The Haunted Ship)
  • Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan

Till February 2020, Bollywood industry fans all across the globe were super-duper excited for the upcoming Bollywood films but then suddenly amid the outbreak of the global ‘Covid-19’ Coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing lockdown (to stop the spread of the virus) has affected all the industries around the world. And, unfortunately, India’s most valued Hindi Cinema which is one of the hugely-relied avenues of entertainment is not an exception in this unfortunate situation.

While the outbreak of the Covid-19 has left the global economy in a state of chaos in December 2019, but the seriousness of its true impact in India was truly realized and experienced after the end of February month. 

We all have witnessed from March 15, 2020, that the Indian government started ordering shutdowns and introducing policies for taking precautionary measures for implementing social distancing in order to limit social interaction to stop the spread of Coronavirus in the country.

Therefore, the fear of contracting COVID-19 led to closed cinema halls, abandoned film sets, halted productions of films along with postponed film releases, cancelled film festivals, and Bollywood stars with empty diaries. One can witness that this uncommon situation brings ‘Bollywood’, India’s mega-industry to a standstill. 

However, the complete impact on the Bollywood industry of the Coronavirus is not possible as of now. But experts can clearly assume that the delay in film releases, promotions, bookings and permissions is expected to increase the cost of doing business for all involved especially the ‘Production house’ which is said to face a cumulative loss of around 50-60 Crores. 

It is said that, the production cost of capital for the Bollywood films (releasing in March and April) is usually around Rs 300 crores and as dates play an important role for the Bollywood industry, the delay of as short as for the two months also will lead to the overall loss of approximately Rs 250 crores and that for the short term. 

The industry is expected to a greater loss because several other industries have already implemented few measures like ‘Work from Home’ to deal with the economic impact of the virus but it is not possible for the entertainment industry to even implement a work from home module to recover from the impact of the pandemic. 

To conclude, let’s have a look at a few movies, events, and shows that have been affected:

    • Salman khan’s Canada and USA concert tour that was scheduled for April 3 to 12.
    • Akshay Kumar film Sooryavanshi, which was scheduled to be released on March 24, has been postponed.
    • Critics’ Choice Film Awards have also been canceled, which were scheduled to be held in Mumbai this year.
    • Chris Hemsworth has canceled his visit to India to promote his Netflix film Extraction.
    • Actress Kangana Ranaut was shooting for her new film in Tamil Nadu has unfortunately stopped shooting.
    • The cricket drama Jersey featuring Shahid Kapoor, production has been halted.
    • Filmmaker Karan Johar this April was supposed to start shooting for his next film Takht – a big period drama but unfortunately the production halted.
    • Other than that, Dharma Productions’ film Brahmastra and Mukesh Bhatt’s film Sadak 2, amongst other big-ticket films, have also ceased shooting. 
    • And, just like Dharma Productions every other film company, every other studio has multiple such situations.