Coronavirus Pandemic. Nationwide Lockdown. Slow Reopening. 50% Theatre Capacity. Second Wave of Coronavirus. Second Lockdown. More than a year wait. The productions of two of the biggest upcoming Indian films, ‘RRR’ and ‘K.G.F: Chapter 2’, have faced all of the above disasters and have managed to somehow pull through to the other side, somewhat “unscathed”. But with a possible third wave of the coronavirus pandemic coming hard and fast in India, we are looking at another year without ‘RRR’ and ‘K.G.F: Chapter 2’.
‘RRR’ and ‘K.G.F: Chapter 2’ are not just two of the biggest production coming out this year, it is a couple of the biggest film productions to be ever made by Indian cinema. So, films like that will not get a direct-to-OTT release. There have been cases like that in Hollywood, but Indian filmmakers are not ready to be that “liberal” with their films just yet. This means that these South Indian flicks will have to be released in theatres while allowing 100% entry capacity if they are to make profits.
But the current Covid-19 situation doesn’t look like it will allow both films to release in 2021. As the second wave of the coronavirus is dying down, the third wave has already started, working intermittently, into the Indian populace. According to multiple studies, by the time October rolls around, we could be looking at an average of 1 lakh cases per day at best and 1.5 lakh cases per day at worst. Since both films will attract South Indian audiences as a whole due to their pan-Indian appeal (and not just the Telugu and Kannada audiences), this news is probably the worst thing to happen to them (on top of everything else).
‘RRR‘ has already been given an October release date but after this report, we figure that will change real soon. At the very least, as soon as the cases start to increase, we are sure the producers will have no choice but to pull the film indefinitely. Their Kannada “counterpart”, ‘K.G.F: Chapter 2’ has already pulled its film from theatres after its previous release date was found to be not suitable for release and we except both films to wait out the pandemic, even if they will have to release the film mid-2022, or God forbid, the year after 2022.
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.