Cinema theatres have been shut since March due to coronavirus. Nearly after five months, indications are coming out from the central government that they will give the necessary permissions to reopen movie theatres.
There are doubts among the filmmakers and theatre owners about the occupancy and other things. Lack of enough content to feed the theatres has become a big challenge for them.
There was a huge demand for theatres when the shoots were happening earlier. The film shoots have been stalled for the last four months.
Some filmmakers have opted for OTT release. With these developments, the exhibitors have to look at the other alternatives for content.
If we talk about the theatres in North India, they are exploring the idea of releasing the South dubbed films to feed the theatres.
The exhibitors have already started discussions with the South filmmakers for releasing Hindi versions of upcoming Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam films.
They are holding talks with the producers of South films that have pan India appeal and that features popular stars.
Kolkata based exhibitor, Sujoy Basu said that the language barrier will be demolished in the future as the mainstream Hindi films like Laxmmi Bomb are taking the OTT route. They have to look at the other films to maintain theatres.
He said that South stars like Prabhas, Rajinikanth, Mohan Lal, Allu Arjun, Mahesh Babu, Jr.NTR, Ajith, Vijay, Yash are more popular than the upcoming Bollywood heroes. They have the capacity to pull crowds with their dubbing versions.
Another Exhibitor from Delhi, Vivek Thakur opined that the popularity of South films increased in the last few years on TV despite poor dubbing.
With high-quality dubbing and good marketing, they have the potential to mint money in North India. He said Bahubali, Saaho, KGF have already proved the point. He said many more South films have that potential.
Another exhibitor from Mumbai, Sanjay Mangaonkar revealed that some times Hollywood dubbed films collect more than the star-studded Hindi films.
He said that South films have a golden opportunity. He predicted that Hollywood and South dubbed films will dominate the box office in the North in the future.
