The Impact of the Bollywood Strike

Major losses to the film industry

Every week a film release generates a business of at least Rs 10 crores. In the absense of any release in two months, this loss has made a huge dent in the industry profits. In fact, the industry suffered a loss of about Rs 80 crores.

Producer Mukesh Bhatt put the losses figure even higher at Rs 300 crores.

April-May is the favourite month for producers, as the summer blockbusters are released during this time. But the strike started on April 4 and lasted until June 5, thus killing the entire summer vacation profits.

After the strike, movies will now tumble over each other to release in theatres, and may end up eating into their own businesses. Producers have agreed to release movies every two weeks. But there are 26 Fridays left in the year and more than 50 films waiting to release.

The competition may become especially fierce during Diwali, as all big-budget releases would want to cash in on the festive season.

The box office is not the only one to suffer due to the strike.

Since there are no movie promotions, no ad spaces are sold on television channels and no hoardings stand tall in the cities. Public relations offices also lose out on work.

The catering business of the multiplexes are also affected, as people don't line up to buy popcorn in theatres. Employers had to give out salaries even though employees had nothing to keep them busy.

The last time Bollywood went on such a long strike was in the early 1980s.

At that time, the Maharashtra state government had imposed an entertainment tax which angered many film producers. The strike had lasted for six months. The government had to withdraw the tax.

But this time, the viewers, thankfully, had television! And the IPL.

Yet, new and improved television shows were introduced only after the IPL.

DVD sales and rentals went up through the roof during the strike.

DVD libraries like seventymm.com and bigflix.com saw an increase in the number of users. The most popular DVDs were animated films, as children -- on vacation -- clearly preferred them.