A tragedy-struck Mumbai remained indoors, glued to their television sets throughout the weekend after the terror attacks paralysed the city. And while the TRPs of news channels shot up, the entertainment industry, in general, took a bad hit. On one hand producers suffered losses due to cancellation of film shoots and on the other, cinema halls chose to keep their shutters down during the weekend citing safety reasons. By Thursday morning, when the city was appraised of the grim situation, Bollywood had already evaluated the response that films releasing on November 28 – ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’ and ‘Sorry Bhai’ — would start counting their losses. The films received better responses in other parts of the country but with most theatres in Mumbai out of operation over Thursday and Friday, business at box office was not more than 30 per cent of what it could have been otherwise. As Ranjan Singh, general manager and head of marketing, PVR Pictures, had earlier said, “Theatres were totally closed in Mumbai on Thursday and Friday. In this situation, it is very difficult to quantify the total amount of loss. But as per my estimate, it is around Rs 3- Rs 4 lakh per multiplex per day.” Despite having received rave reviews, director Dibaker Bannerjee’s ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’ saw a grim opening over the weekend, with a mere 20 per cent response. “The entire nation was mourning over the loss. Who was in the mood? We ourselves forgot all about the film till Sunday,” rues Bannerjee. Mumbai Mantra, the distributors of ‘Sorry Bhai’, were unwilling to share the figures but clearly spelt out the doom. Vikramjit Roy, head of Mumbai Mantra, says that ‘Sorry Bhai’ opened only on November 28- and the fact that it is in its second week means a lot, given that it was faced with all odds upon opening. Always reflecting the mood of the country, box-office sales picked up once the coup was over. “Many returned to the theatres, especially in the suburbs of Mumbai,” claims Ramesh Sippy, president of the distributors’ association. Roy confirms Sippy’s claim, “’Sorry Bhai’ figures have shot up by 30 per cent.” Siddharth Roy Kapoor, CEO, UTV, producers and distributors of ‘Oye Lucky’, even released a statement to the effect. After a weak opening, the film has been doing very well across the country. Our weekend gross collections were Rs 4.6 crore, it states. Amidst the mayhem in the city, two films that were to release alongside the aforementioned — ‘Khallballi’ and ‘The President is Coming’ — backed out last moment, predicting lack of business and, as Rohan Sippy, producer of President, says, “keeping with the sentiment”. The film will now release mid-January. “December end has a few big releases lined up. A good film should get its due.” Trade pundits feel that the industry is going through a rough patch, which started with the recession and has worsened with the terror attacks. But the industry, as usual, rides on optimism. Tushar Dhingra, COO, Big Cinemas, expects the slump to be short-term. Big Cinemas, the theatre chain belonging to the Reliance Anil Ambani Group (ADAG), resumed operations on Friday after remaining shut on Thursday. “We are hoping that things will get back to normal soon,” he adds.
