Actor-filmmaker Gippy Grewal, though keeping himself pre-occupied with releasing new singles even in the lockdown, is unhappy with one thing. His slate of films for the entire year has gone for a toss, including ones that were set for a release, resulting in losses.
“As a producer, it’s impacted a lot of my work. My production house is the biggest in Punjab. We had 10 films in the pipeline, two were ready. One was going to in fact release on March 20, but the cinemas in Punjab were closed on March 16 or 17, and hence the film’s release was stopped too. Samajh nahi aaya kya karein. Promotion-publicity ke upar paisa bhi chala gaya. I don’t know what will be people’s reaction when it comes out eventually,” says Grewal.
He further adds that even the trailer launch of one of his films had to be cancelled the moment he received the letter about a ban on shoots. “We had been given time till March 19 to wrap up, but our crew was big, so we didn’t take any risk and stopped work on March 15-16 itself. Our entire catalogue had been announced. Money had already been paid to artists, crores of rupees have been invested. Samajh nahi aa raha. Even if we consider that things will be normal in a couple of months, theatres are one place where there is a lot of rush of people. By when will people accept this and go to the theatres? They will be scared,” shares the 37-year-old.
{{/usCountry}}He further adds that even the trailer launch of one of his films had to be cancelled the moment he received the letter about a ban on shoots. “We had been given time till March 19 to wrap up, but our crew was big, so we didn’t take any risk and stopped work on March 15-16 itself. Our entire catalogue had been announced. Money had already been paid to artists, crores of rupees have been invested. Samajh nahi aa raha. Even if we consider that things will be normal in a couple of months, theatres are one place where there is a lot of rush of people. By when will people accept this and go to the theatres? They will be scared,” shares the 37-year-old.
{{/usCountry}}There is a lot of uncertainty naturally. Grewal also touches upon the OTT platforms, where regional films too had takers. “We would regularly give our films to them. They (number of OTT platforms) were limited, I wish they would grow bigger, and new ones come up, otherwise they will have monopoly ‘cinemas ka sab garbage padha hai, hamare paas hi aayega’. Even our industry is regional, they give priority to Hindi and English films. When regional ones start coming, there will be confusion,” he says.
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