By Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Rupam Jain
MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s film industry, purveyor of song-and-dance spectacles to millions, will take at least two years to recover financially from the coronavirus pandemic, which is threatening big-ticket projects, putting at risk tens of thousands of jobs.
That was the sombre assessment of about a dozen top producers, distributors and actors from Bollywood, the movie industry in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai, during a video conference this week, one of the participants said.
“Making movies has always been a gamble, and now some of us can pack up for the next year,” said a film-maker responsible for many successful action movies, on condition of anonymity. “We will have to beg people to come to cinema halls.”
Such dim prospects, even after the lockdown is lifted, threaten the box-office takings that make up 60% of industry earnings, spurring producers to say big-budget films and…
