Bollywood moviegoers, journalists and supporters breathed a huge sigh of relief earlier today when news emerged that the four month dispute that had seen multiplexes left bare as the producers pursued a scorched earth policy was finally over.
“The strike has finally come to an end late in the night and movies will start coming June 12 onwards,” said Joginder Mahajan, a distributor, “The final settlement has been reached which is 50, 42, 35 and 30 percent for the first, second, third and fourth week respectively for all movies and 52, 45, 38 and 30 percent respectively for all blockbuster movies that manage to collect more than Rs 17.5 crore ($3.5 million) only at the six leading multiplex chains.”
The multiplexes have suffered badly during the strike with audiences in some case dropping as low as 10% despite attempts to shore up attendance by re-releasing blockbusters from previous years, more Hollywood and other western movies, and the best of movies from the South. The movies to be released next week Kal Kissne Dekha with Jacky Bagnani and Mithun Chakraborty’s Zor Laga Ke Haiya may benefit from a rebound effect.
The end of the strike will come as a huge relief to Bollywood’s many fans as businessman Akshay Manwani explained, “With the end of the IPL there is no option available for entertainment on the weekends. Typically the weekend is either spent visiting friends or watching movies. Now with no movies coming through, there is no option available. All we do is visit friends and after some time even that gets repetitive to be brutally honest,” he said.
