Pinkvilla: Shooting shut down two days early due to Corona

EXCLUSIVE: Coronavirus Effect: TV industry to suffer 100 crore loss with shut down, says JD Majethia

In the wake of coronavirus outbreak, we spoke to JD Majethia, chairman, TV and WEB , IFTPC, exclusively to understand why was this decision taken and how much will the industry lose in the next two weeks. Read.

Written By Bhavna Agarwal  Mumbai  Updated: March 17, 2020 07:07 PM  10208 reads  0 comments

Not just films, Television which constitutes one of the biggest shares of the entertainment industry, is all set to face the dent with the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. As per government’s directions, shooting of Television shows at Filmcity was asked to wrap up today itself, two days before the said date. This left a few producers in distress but we spoke to JD Majethia, chairman, TV and WEB , IFTPC, to understand why was this decision taken and how much will the industry lose in the next two weeks. 

With minimum bank of episodes in place, most broadcasters will have to repeat episodes and go for a re-run while a launch of a new show was postponed. We asked JD, if there is any state of panic amongst the producers. To this, he said, “We cannot panic. What will happen with us panicking? Today, the situation is critical, we don’t know what awaits for us tomorrow. We are obviously worried that what will happen because some producers have a bank of episodes and some don’t. Some might repeat and some may run fresh content.we will have to wait and watch. It is the time where you have to keep safety over business.”

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He added, “It can happen that maybe a few shows might benefit out of repeats and might get an audience which they perhaps didn’t have earlier. Audience might sample and give new shows a chance and might start following it. Some show might lose viewers while some might benefit. It is a situation with a lot of ifs and buts. Yes, right now it is a challenge for the industry to be safe, keep safe, spread safety (as audience takes TV seriously) and keep entertaining. Viewers though might benefit as they have time in hand and can sample different channels thereby getting exposed to different content. Their can be a strategy of the broadcaster  to rerun their very successful shows with longer episodes which might get audience to beat the competitors but about this you should speak with some one from the broadcasters.”

He continued, “Secondly, web series can boom. Because with theatres and malls closed and TV going on re run, people will have spare money and time on hand to watch new shows. Speaking of losses, everybody is incurring losses. The OTT platforms with good content which were waiting for growth, this is an opportunity , specially to launch their new shows and films they have invested time energy and huge money in.”

What about the sudden shut down of FilmCity gates? JD shared, “Our fraternity had passed an order on Sunday where we stated that TV industry will stop shooting from March 19. When I called up Aaditya Thackeray ji this morning, regarding the clarity on Filmcity shoots being stopped unexpectedly. Thats when he broke the news of the first death in Mumbai of the coronavirus and we all need to look at the safety our people city, state and country. He further said  ‘what will happen if you don’t shoot for a day? How much more will you lose?’ We all will collectively work on lots of interesting projects and development of entertainment industry in Mumbai at a later stage but first let’s save Mumbai.’ I immediately agreed with his views  and we spoke with the broadcasters on a conference call and explained that we will have to stop shooting from today itself. And everybody understood the seriousness of the situation and kept humanity over business and took the call.”

Lastly, he concluded that The Television industry will incur minimum 100 crores loss in the next two weeks (which includes everything).”

Before hanging up, he prompted, “We should know the situation of our country in the next two weeks as this is a critical stage.”

Losses can be recovered later but safety comes first. Good decision.👍🏼

Next two weeks are very critical for all of us. Stay safe people.

Thanks Armu for sharing.

So any idea  how many new episodes we may get to watch this week till the shooting resumes or they will telecast old episodes from today?

Originally posted by: Goofy_farm

Thanks Armu for sharing.

So any idea  how many new episodes we may get to watch this week till the shooting resumes or they will telecast old episodes from today?

They would've banked atleast 10 episodes. I think there would be no problem for telecast till end of March

Originally posted by: pranurosid

They would've banked atleast 10 episodes. I think there would be no problem for telecast till end of March

 Thank you for the info.

Hoping everybody are safe and this situation pass by soon . Looking at the news India is doing tremendous job in keeping the prevention measures/control.

Originally posted by: pranurosid

They would've banked atleast 10 episodes. I think there would be no problem for telecast till end of March

10😲 

That wedding pic was just 4 days ago. I doubt they have a bank of more than this week. 

I dont think they have any bank episodes. looks lik they havent shot much

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