Too Late To Pull Out ‘Angrezi Medium’, Says Producer Dinesh Vijan

Angrezi Medium released in theatres on 13 March amidst coronavirus outbreak.

Maddock Films’ Dinesh Vijan. 

(Photo: Yogen Shah)

Irrfan Khan, Radhika Madan and Kareena Kapoor-starrer Angrezi Medium released in theatres on 13 March, amidst the Coronavirus outbreak, and announcements of a theatre shutdown in several states, including Delhi and Kerala. On Friday, 13 March, Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur were also ordered to shut down theatres to curb the spread of coronavirus.

While the release date of Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi, which was to hit the theatres on 24 March, was pushed, Angrezi Medium makers were forced to go ahead with the release as it was too late to pull out.

In an exclusive interview to Mumbai Mirror, producer of the film, Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films, said that it was too late to pull the film out of the theatres as the film had already been released in Dubai on Thursday 12 March, when the announcement of theatre shutdown in Delhi came in on late that evening.

“We had no option as the film had already opened in the UAE-GCC market on Thursday, when the Chief Minister of Delhi (Arvind Kejriwal) announced shutdown of theatres later in the day. Had we known three-four days ago that this would happen, we might have had time to rethink the release, but on Thursday it was too late to pull out.”

Dinesh Vijan, Producer, Angrezi Medium 

Vijan and the film's studio partner, Jio were locked in a close door meeting till late in the night on Thursday, but finally decided to go ahead the release. The film suffered a major blow the next day when three other cities in Maharashtra also were asked to shut its theatres, gyms and some other places of public gathering.

“I understand that the government is taking these steps in the larger interests of people. And I personally want everyone to be safe. Still, it’s sad that a good film has come in the eye of a storm. In my 20 years as a producer, I’ve never faced a situation like this. There have been shutdowns in one or two territories. but this is an unprecedented situation,” he said in the interview.

Dinesh though, said, that they can claim insurance for no-shows as the film is “covered by insurance”.

On the evening of the day of release, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced that theatres in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur will be shut down as a safety measure, as more coronavirus cases emerged in these cities.

In an interview to The Quint, on 12 March, movie business analyst Atul Mohan said that “coronavirus scare is definitely going to have an impact on the film’s collections”, as the major markets for Angrezi Medium are metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi.

The collections of last Friday’s release, Baaghi 3, are also expected to be affected due to the theatres shutdown in several cities across the country.