Christopher Nolan’s much-awaited movie ‘Tenet’ has been shifted its release date from July 31 to August 12 due to the global pandemic. On Friday, Warner Bros announced the release date of the movie. The announcement also indicates that in India, cinemas are not going to open any time soon. While cinemas have been advertising about the safety measures they have been taking, it seems that there is time before they reopen, thanks to a surge in COVID-19 cases across the country.
The Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar, held a video conference on June 2 with multiple film associations, exhibitors and film industry representatives. In response to the demand for the opening of cinema halls, he told the exhibitors that the situation will be examined after measuring the status of COVID-19 pandemic in June.
Most of the major cinemas chains such as PVR, Carnival have released videos showing how cinemas are ready to adapt the safety measures. The decision to reopen the cinemas will be taken in the last week of June. But now, after seeing the increment in cases it doesn’t seem like the cinemas will be allowed to reopen soon.
According to TOI reports an exhibiter said, “We were expecting that the release of ‘Tenet’ will work in favour of cinemas across the world, but now that the film has been pushed to August, we don’t expect cinema halls to open anytime soon.”
Earlier this week, a discussion on the ‘Future of films in a post COVID world’ at the virtual India Pavilion at Cannes Film Market saw filmmakers discussing the future of cinema halls and if they will survive the pandemic. While Shekhar Kapur said that cinemas would not survive, Kabir Khan disagreed, but said, “I would agree that maybe in terms of near future, it is going to be a struggle to bring back the audience to theatres.”
“Considering the surge in the number of coronavirus cases, it doesn’t seem likely that cinemas will be allowed to reopen. Hence cinemas are now looking for other business options to survive the pandemic. A major chain is looking to move to OTT platform and another chain has already announced cloud kitchen.” He says that major announcements are expected once cinema halls have clarity about reopening, adding, “But we believe that cinemas will not be allowed to reopen before October.” Says TOI reports.
