'Theatres aren't going to open for atleast a year': Shekhar Kapur predicts amid Unlock 2.0

Director Shekhar Kapur took to his Twitter handle on Tuesday to predict what the future holds for the theatres. "Theatres are not going to open for atleast a year. So all hype around first weeks bussiness of 100+ crores is dead," Kapur claimed.

He further added, "So the theatrical Star System is dead. Stars will have to go to existing OTT platform or stream films themselves through their own apps. Technology is quite simple." [sic] Reacting to Kapur's tweet, director Ram Gopal Varma wrote, "That sounds pretty much like a doomsday prediction for an era" [sic]

Shekhar Kapur's tweet received over 2,300 likes. One user wrote, "Even if the theatres do open in near future, there will be no immediate audience due to the fear factor. In such case, OTT is the way to go. No wonder we have big stars films like #LaxmiBomb and #Sadak2 directly going for digital premieres." The other commented, "Yes sir. Corona has dramatically and drastically changed whole maths of the life and technology." [sic]

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Russo Bros wary of returning to theatres amid COVID-19

Theatres may be set to reopen across the US this month, but "Avengers: Endgame" director duo Anthony and Joe Russo are unsure about heading to the cinema halls in the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. He said as much as he was "desperate for the theatrical experience" like any other cinema goer, what's more important is "where are you going to put the risk?"

"I think there are more immediate places to put the risk in terms of human connection than a theatre full of strangers, unfortunately," Anthony Russo added. Echoing similar sentiment, Joe Russo said being in an enclosed space, like a cinema hall, "is a high-risk situation".

"There's the question of where we want that to happen, which we do, but whether that's practical and safe and whether we can recommend it, which I don't think we could," he added.

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(with PTI inputs)