Theatres Covid19

Today, March 14th marks the first anniversary of Telugu film industry’s worst nightmare. On this very day in 2020, Telangana Government has decided to shut the theaters until March 31st, 2020 after Corona cases started cropping up in the country and the state.

Probably, very few people expected it to be the biggest shutdown of Telugu film industry. The theaters were shutdown for several months and some never reopened. The staff had to shift to doing minuscule jobs and live on the cash and kind donated by the industry folks. Similar is the situation of junior and small artists.

Production house who have films ready for release and whose films were on sets stared at blank future. Some have opted to skip the theatrical release. Some producers with no notable cast did not even have the luxury. Just imagine having to sell assets just for paying interests.

No one right from the stars to the studio owners are certain about the future. It was like Big problems for small guys and Small problems for Big guys. At the end, everyone suffered. This is just the superficial part of the crisis and media is the biggest victim of the pandemic.

It is a total mayhem for print media with sales completely becoming zero. The electronic media has no content and advertising revenue. The web media is literally bleeding with zero revenues. Some websites which you read may never exist today. Scores of journalists across the media lost their jobs or took massive pay cuts. Media owners struggled even to pay the rest.

And the revival started with Solo Brathuke So Better which released towards the end of Christmas. There is no looking back from Sankranthi. 2021 is kind enough to give more than usual hits for Tollywood. Things are looking positive but normalcy is still not here.

Remember we are still in the middle of a Pandemic with a possible second wave lurking. When you go to a theater to watch a film, remember your family members back home and your friends in the industry and media. We need you more than ever, please do wear a mask, maintain social distancing, and follow all other COVID-19 safety norms.