Roaring success of tentpole Hollywood and Bollywood films coupled with regional movies has brought the Indian entertainment business back into action after a long hiatus and ongoing battle with COVID-19 pandemic, believes Kamal Gianchandani, CEO PVR Pictures. For the last two years, the cinema and exhibition industry not only in India but worldwide has been reeling under the impact of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, which hit India first in March 2020, followed by the second wave in April this year. Also Read Gauri Khan Shares First Instagram Post After Aryan Khan Drug Controversy.

It led to a complete shutdown of theatres for months both last year and this year. The big screen is back for good, said an excited Gianchandani, who is also the president of Multiplex Association of India (MAI). “The worst is behind us. Cinema exhibition business is firmly on the recovery path. The advanced sales of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home' points towards Rs 400 cr box office number for the entire run of the film. The performance of ‘Sooryavanshi', which is Rs 200 cr net, ‘Doctor' (Tamil), and other Punjabi films, which were released in September-October, have given us the confidence that audiences are more than happy to be back in theatres. Ayushmann Khurrana: Would Love to Play Neeraj Chopra in a Biopic if It's Made in the Near Future.

“The numbers are only substantiating that this industry will have the best next 10 years that we have seen in the entire history of our business. This industry is going to be unstoppable,” Gianchandani told PTI in a Zoom interview. Even though the Hindi film market saw a revival last month with the release of Rohit Shetty's big-ticket cop drama “Sooryavanshi”, Gianchandani believes the exhibition industry had been minting money before that courtesy films from the south and Punjab circuit.

However, films such as Akshay Kumar-led “Sooryavanshi”, which locked horns with the Marvel superhero film “Eternals”, on November 5, further set the cash registers ringing. “The recovery process has started very strongly. In October, we had the Tamil film ‘Doctor' and a slew of Punjabi films which did well. But November is when the box office took off. Both ‘Eternals' and ‘Sooryavanshi' exceeded expectations,” he added. Gianchandani said Rajinikanth's “Annaatthe”, which hit screens on November 4, started with a bang, but soon fizzled out as audiences didn't warm up to the film.

“…But that's the nature of our business that if people are not happy with content, they move on to something else,” he observed. The winter season has kick-started on a welcome note, he said, with record-breaking advance sales of “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, which released Thursday, and Allu Arjun-starrer Telugu film “Pushpa: The Rise”, opening on Friday. Such an overwhelming response, Gianchandani said, has made him believe that the cinema exhibition has “bounced back” in all true sense.

“With big films like ‘The Matrix Resurrections' (December 22), followed by ‘83' (December 24) and ‘Jersey' (December) coming week after week things are really looking good.” While Hollywood films continue to attract the Indian audience towards the cinema halls, according to Gianchandani, Hindi belt dominates the box office earnings with the lion's share of 55 to 60 per cent.

The 20-25 per cent chunk emanates from films in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali and other Indian languages, followed by Hollywood, which contributes about 15 to 20 per cent.

“Hollywood offers something which Indian films are not able to match in terms of budgets and as a result, when you have big superhero films with special effects, cinematic experience, there is demand. “And that's what is happening with ‘Spider-Man', ‘Avengers' and the phenomenon will continue with ‘The Batman' coming out in March, and ‘Avatar' will take it to another level when it comes out in December 2022,” he added.

Speaking about the segment of audience that drives the business in the country, Gianchandani shared that the youth of India – who are below the age of 30 – have been the early adopters of the cinema viewing experience. People above the age of 55 and 60 years are yet to throng in, he said. “As more films which appeal to this segment start coming out, they too will be back in big numbers. With ‘Spider-Man', which is a universal film, the appeal is cutting across all age groups. By the time we get to ‘83', all segments of audiences will be back to theatres,” he added.

As the industry ushers in the New Year in the next two weeks, the senior executive said SS Rajamouli's pan-India release of “RRR” on January 7 will only further propel the business. Other big films slated for release next year include Prabhas' “Radhe Shyam” and “Adipurush”, Kumar's “Prithviraj”, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's “Gangubai Kathiawadi”, Aamir Khan-starrer “Laal Singh Chaddha”, “Maidaan” fronted by Ajay Devgn, and Ranbir Kapoor's “Brahmastra”, among others.

“The first quarter of calendar year 2022 would be the biggest ever in the history of exhibition business. Fingers crossed. We are expecting big films releasing till April and even after May-June, and we are surely onto something really strong,” he said. While all seems to be going well, Gianchandani is quick to add that the exhibition sector is still mindful of the ongoing pandemic and continues to follow all precautionary steps. “We have full faith in the medical infrastructure and our government. They're taking decisive steps. We too continue to invest in safety protocols and ensure that as we keep moving forward, we raise the bar for the experience we have created that audiences expect from us,” he said.

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