There was a sense of disappointment within the industry as many movies were being pushed due to Covid. But here’s some good news for the cinema fans as new release dates are being announced and there’s some promising content slowly being rolled out.
Check out some movies to look forward to, in cinemas and OTT in February and March.
Looop Lapeta (February 4 on Netflix)
This Taapsee Pannu and Tahir Raj Bhasin starrer looks really interesting and it would be so refreshing to see both these actors in an unusual love story like this. It is set to release on Netflix on February 4.
Badhaai Do (February 11 in Cinemas)
The trailer of Badhaai Do has just released today and the film will hit the theatres on February 11. It’s a Valentine’s day weekend and the film looks so interesting with the backdrop of homosexuality along with fun and entertainment. Hoping this Rajkummar Rao-Bhumi Pednekar film to do even better than Badhaai Ho. I’m so happy this is a theatrical release which will give a much-needed boost to the business in cinemas.
Gehraiyaan (February 11 on Amazon Prime)
Gehraiyaan on the other hand will stream on Amazon Prime from the same date. Badhaai Do and Gehraiyaan, both are so different in genres and releasing on different platforms so don’t think they should affect each other. Moreover, the interesting casting (that of Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday and Dhairya Karwa) along with the trailer has created immense buzz.
Bachchan Pandey (March 18)
One of the biggest films to look forward to is Bachchan Pandey – starring Akshay Kumar. Just like Sooryavanshi brought in the much needed relief after a long drought period at the theatres, one hopes that Kumar brings in the business with this film.
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (March 25)
Anees Bazmee’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 is another film with major expectations since the first part was so successful. The sequel has Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani but one addition to really add to the film’s appeal is Tabu. The makers recently announced that there’s no change in the film’s release date and it will very much release in cinemas on March 25.
The makers of RRR have issues two tentative dates – either March 18 or April 28 for their film’s release. If theatres are open in full capacity, then RRR will also be a March release and will clash with Bachchan Pandey. But all in all, February-March look good at the movies.
The industry insiders and trade people are really happy that slowly films will hit the theatres starting with Badhaai Do. And once the Covid scenario gets better, many more release announcements can be expected.
Trade Analyst Taran Adarsh says,
The industry is waiting for cinemas in Delhi to re-open and post that, a few more releases will be announced and the flow of movies will begin again. But a few films have announced its release date, for instance, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 which is sticking to its original release date. Then there’s, Badhaai Do which is arriving on Valentine’s Day weekend and of course, the big Bachchan Panday which is coming on March 18. Also, Aamir Khan has issued a statement that he isn’t postponing the release of Laal Singh Chaddha and RRR has also announced two release dates of which they will choose. I genuinely feel that once the cinemas re-open and the cases go down, then I think the numbers would be coming in again. It’s just a matter of time that big films will start arriving in cinemas again. At the moment, there’s not much content in the market. There’s only Pushpa which is doing good business in small centres. Apart from that, the scarcity of content in the market has taken a toll on the cinema business but let’s be optimistic. Let’s hope that when cinemas reopen, the box-office numbers bring back smile on our faces.
Film exhibitor Akshaye Rathi says,
It’s nice to see films like Badhaai Do and RRR announcing their release dates and it’s a matter of couple of days before we see a barrage of announcements being made. In my opinion, my understanding of the ground reality is that, there’s absolutely no impact on the consumption. People are willing to spend and live their lives normally, at large. So, whenever there is good content in cinemas, we will have people come in big numbers. We’ve seen that with Pushpa and Spiderman. The only thing that is limiting business right now is restriction in terms of partial lockdowns. As soon as that is out of picture, I’m sure the business will go up in very quick time.
The industry and all of us, are pretty optimistic now and I’m hoping that February and March revive the charm of good movies with the above mentioned line-up.