The Covid-19 pandemic has pretty much wiped out the release calendar in Bollywood this year as well as the shooting schedules of upcoming projects. Like everyone in the film industry, Rakul Preet Singh is also facing the heat of this crisis, with as many as six of her films in the limbo, but she is not fretting over it.
“There is no point having a plan of action. In fact no one really does because we don’t know when people will be comfortable stepping out of their homes, especially because a film shoot requires a minimum of 100 people, which is quite crowded. Everyone is just hoping that we get a clean chit for shooting but that will only happen when you know that there is enough room for treatment,” she shares.
While Singh may not know what the future looks like, she admits that she is itching to go back to work as she hasn’t been at home this long ever since she became an actor. “Two of my Hindi films (Attack and a film with Arjun Kapoor) were nearly finished and I was supposed to start the third, besides three other films South industry. Right now I am hoping at least one place opens before the other, so I can sort those dates. That way everything does not come together,” explains the 29-year-old.
This crisis has also brought the prospect of the OTT platforms becoming the preferred medium for producers to release their films, owing to the uncertainty over the theatres opening anytime soon. While Singh admits that as an actor she does not really worry much about the platform, she says, “Big films like a Sooryavanshi is a theatre film and people would like to come to cinemas to watch it. I would want these films to be out in cinema because the magic of the big screen is different.”
However, given the gravity of the situation and the financial aspect of the movie business, the actor feels the producers should have the last word in such a scenario.
“They want their product to be out because a lot of money is riding on it and they would want a digital release. Once the films are ready, it is a producer’s call to release it theatrically or digitally. They also things to normalize and films to come back in theatres but if they think digital is right, well you know they are the best ones to decide,” she says.
