There was ambiguity regarding the release of Abhishek Sharma’s Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari when theatres in Maharashtra were compelled to keep their shutters down due to the lockdown. But with the recent Maharashtra government order allowing the re-opening of cinema halls in the state, the film is likely to have a theatrical release.
Sharma is confident that people will turn up to watch new films in cinema halls despite such a big gap. “We recently saw so many films released in Bengal and they are doing very good business. People will come when new films are released. Recently, we have been showing old films and maybe that’s why people aren’t going [in large numbers],” he said.
Over the last 7-8 months, the audience has been used to watching a whole lot of content on over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Sharma believes this habit won’t bring about a change in content consumption. In fact, he refuses to describe this as a habit.
“This isn’t a habit, it’s a punishment. People are fed up. In India, cinema is a religion where people go out with their families to see films. Because of these things, I feel people will come in large numbers. This [watching content on OTT] was a temporary phase. It wasn’t a new normal. The new normal will be watching films in theatres while maintaining social distancing,” he added.
The filmmaker is also sure the medium will cross this hurdle too. “When new films release — mostly ours will be the first one — it will be interesting to see how soon will people break free and come to theatres. Cinema has been facing different challenges for the past 100 years. I am very sure it will overcome this too. There won’t be a problem once theatres re-open,” he said.
Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari is a comedy starring Manoj Bajpayee, Diljit Dosanjh and Fatima Sana Shaikh.