Besides Vashu Bhagnani’s Bellbottom, the only other film announced for theatrical release post-lockdown, so far, is Universal’s Fast & Furious 9. Universal has scheduled the ninth instalment of the film for release on 5th August, a week after Bellbottom.
Of course, one needs to understand that cinemas in Maharashtra have still not reopened but indications are that a few more states, including Maharashtra, will grant cinemas permission to reopen before July-end. Needless to add, all that is speculation. There is so much speculation around the reopening in other states and more particularly Maharashtra because one is not sure if a Bollywood producer would like to release his film in India without cinemas in Bombay (which falls in the state of Maharashtra) restarting and also without cinemas in a sizeable number of states reopening. That’s because Bombay is the nerve-centre of the Hindi film industry and also because if many states do not grant permission to cinemas to reopen, it may not be worthwhile for a Hindi film to release theatrically.
