Fox Star Studios HALTS all future projects, terminates 18 employees amid shutdown rumours

Fox Star Studios holds off greenlighting future projects, terminates 18 employees because of the pandemic shutdown.

Last week, there were rumours that Disney Star India was not in good business. After Fox Star Studios CEO, Vijay Singh, resigned in March, Uday Shankar announced that he will resign in December as Star and Disney India chairman and Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific president. From the past four months the media team has reduced the studio’s 25-member team to five members only. The upcoming movie Brahmastra starring Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt is the only project currently working in the studio.

Fox Star Studios terminates 18 employees from the unit due to overlapping duties and because of the pandemic shutdown. In August, an employee was handed the termination letter stating, “We had expected [the termination] because the studio stopped sanctioning films in India since the takeover. Brahmastra is our last project. Though they were in talks to back Karan Johar’s Takht, the studio decided against it. We were paid our dues with a severance package of three months”. Another employee who was terminated in September, says that the media giant wants to change business tactics instead of writing the vertical off. It is also said that the studio will continue to invest in Hindi series, regional language shows, and direct-to-net films.

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Disney employee also mentioned that this year there was an average business as the movies Chhapaak and Panga had a good run at the box- office. The box-office run of Baaghi 3 was cut short by the pandemic. The studio was not faring well. The only unit making money is Disney+Hotstar due to its sports content. We are hoping the platform’s subscription base will increase post the release of Bhuj and Laxmmi Bomb. Of its six releases last year, the studio enjoyed box-office success with Housefull 4, Chhichhore and Mission Mangal while the poor run of Kalank, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga and The Zoya Factor apparently had average business.