Bollywood Strike Enters 4th Week; Producers Turn To Single-Screen Theatres

Bollywood Strike Enters 4th Week; Producers Turn To Single-Screen TheatresThe spat between Bollywood producers and multiplex owners has entered into the fourth week as there’s no concrete solution to the ongoing crisis thus far.

The multiplexes have been meeting amongst themselves almost on a daily basis, trying to find out a final answer, which would be acceptable to both the film producers as well as distributors.

A meeting between the warring parties is likely to take place by the coming week. Let's hope for the best.

If the postponement in reaching a final answer comes out by, say, next week, it will take another 6-7-8 weeks’ time for big-budget movies to reach film theatres, since that's the time it takes to advertise a movie before its release.

This means, there might not be any major release till mid-June.

Moreover, there are reports that the film makers are turning to the 11,000 single-screen theatres across the country with the intention to make money.

They have announced the release of some of their old films in select single-screen theatres.

UTV, for instance, has organized a festival named ‘UTV Mela’, where movies including Jodhaa Akbar, Race, Fashion, Rang De Basanti, A Wednesday and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye will be screened in select single-screen theatres across major cities in India.

Indian Films will be releasing their hits Ghajini and Golmaal Returns, and Yash Raj, as well, will be giving Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi to single-screen theatres.

According to reports, the individual multiplexes are suffering an every day loss of Rs 1.5 lakh because of the ongoing tiff.

As per analysts reports, in the last month (March 2009), BO collections for Bollywood movies was just Rs 60 crore, the lowest during the last 3 years.

The report added that there are expectations that last month’s collections will go down further in April. The main cause for the low April figure is the launch of the IPL Twenty20 format cricket tournament.