The United Kingdom is swirling like a dry leaf in heavy wind with the outbreak of a new Coronavirus strain. The happiness of vaccines is short-lived and the globe is worried about these developments. Several countries are going for night curfews, travel curbs, and Lockdowns to contain the spread ahead of the Christmas and New year celebrations.
There are worries if this new strain will close the cinema theaters once again. Various countries have allowed the cinema theaters to open with social distancing in place. While the audience is expected to muster courage in the festive season to come to the theaters, this has come as a shock to the industry.
If things go bad to worse from here, we may see another OTT boom in January. Several films in India especially from the South are targeting harvest festival release in January. The trade will be severely disappointed if that does not happen and we may witness panic-selling of the films to the OTT platforms. In such a condition, the OTT platforms will also look to fish in troubled waters quoting dirt cheap prices. The coming few days are going to be extremely interesting for the Indian Cinema and OTT space.