Lockdown babies, weddings and pregnancy

 

Lockdown has seen its share of pregnancies, baby deliveries and marriage in South filmdpm. Lets start with marriages. There were many in the news but the biggest was that of actress Miya George getting engaged.. A well known actress in Malayalam and Tamil, Miya took everybody by surprise. June 27, 2020,  Bigg Boss Tamil Season 3 fame actressVanitha Vijayakumar and filmmaker, Peter Paul got married. The marriage has raked up a big controversy in the social media and it is still raging. Now to news of pregnancy- Director Selvaraghavan ( Puthupettai)  wife Gitanjali announced that she is 17 weeks pregnant. Mollywood’s cute couple Pearle Maaney and Srinish Aravind also made the announcement that they are expecting a baby on Instagram

Babies born during lockdown : Music composer- actor GV Prakash Kumar and his wife Saindhavi welcomed their baby daughter in April this year. Actor Nakkhul Jaidev and his wife Shruti announced the arrival of baby girl. Tamil Bigg Boss fame Daniel Annie Pope and his wife Danisha were blessed with a baby boyPopular Mollywood actor Tovino Thomas announced the birth of his second son on June 6. He married his girlfriend Lidiya in 2014. He also has a four-year-old daughter Izza Thomas.

In Bollywood we saw Anushka Sharma and her cricketer husband Virat Kohli announcing  that they are expecting their first child. Kareena Kapoor Khan had also  announced that they are expecting their second child.

Gambling on Mohanlal Marakkar and Vijay's Master to pull crowds

 

If theaters are given permission to open next month , except for multilingual Marrakkar starring Mohanlal and directed by Priydarshan and Vijay’s Master, there is no big ticket film in the South that can bring the crowds back to movie halls. The sale of Soorai Potturu to Amazon and Malayalam film Kilometeres and kilometers to OTT has affected the calculations of Kerala and Tamil Nadu distributors. In Kannada filmdom it is worse as there is Star film ready and will have re-release Drona of Shivarajakumar released at the start of Lockdown. Same is the situation in AP &T after Nani’s V went to Amazon.

Though there are 45 films in Malayalam that is ready for screening, only Marakkar has the potential to pull the crowds in Kerala. As the film is made on a pan- Indian concept, the dubbed version might appeal for its grandeur to other language audience.  During the lockdown, the most viewed language film online was Malayalam .It could be a trial run for theaters outside Kerala. Tamil rights are with Thanu.  After SP backing out, the exhibitors have no choice but to go with Master to get the crowds. Vijay films apart from Tamil Nadu has a strong draw in Kerala and neighboring States.

The risk  for the distributors of Marakkar and Master is high. These films will have be bought on a MG basis and it means the money is locked in. The whole gamble is on how the audience that is still battling Covid  will decide – to go see Mohanlal – Vijay wth the family ( in case kids are allowed by Government) or will it have to bank on fan clubs alone to pull it through.

In USA and other countries the patronage of movie halls that opened last Friday is poor; the major beneficiary of Indian theaters opening is the foreign studios that have a vast library of films that are awaiting release all over India.

As productions are to start, Arun Vijay, Vikram and Vijay Sethupathi films will resume. Rajinikanth and Ajith will not take part in shoot till the vaccine arrives. Sun Pictures is to shoot all portions that do not involved Rajinikanth. In Telugu, Vijay Devarakonda’s Fighter’ under Puri Jagannadh's direction which also features Bollywood actress Ananya Pandey as the female lead in the film will start immediately as only a few days of work remains. Kannada’s Yash and Shivarajakumar have already got ready to complete the pending films.