BookMyShow lays off 200 employees as Covid-19 cloud hangs over theatres

The CEO appealed to other employers to help find a 'new home' for the affected staffers

With movie theatres shuttered and slim chances of cinema-going revival on the horizon, online ticketing portal BookMyShow has laid off as many as 200 employees, the company's chief executive announced on Twitter, as Covid-19 takes a sizable bite out of the film business.

“COVID19 has taught me many lessons & I learnt another one today,” Ashish Hemrajani tweeted, announcing that the firm had let go of close to 17 per cent of its existing workforce. The firm had laid off or furloughed 270 employees in May last year as the Covid-19 restrictions were already beginning to sting the ticketing giant.

Hemrajani also appealed to other employers on the microblogging site to take on some of the employees, soliciting private messages to work out terms with potential employers.

The entertainment and media industry as a whole has been wrecked by subsequent waves of the pandemic, amid strict restrictions on leisure activities. As big-ticket releases shifted to the digital space, the film industry has been the worst sufferer by far, having lost an estimated Rs 11,900 crore in revenue in 2020, according to an Ernst & Young report.

Estimates suggested an increase in revenue in 2021 as fresh infections had flatlined in the early part of the year, but the second Covid wave may have dashed some of those hopes.

This could also mean that the shift towards at-home entertainment could be accelerated and box-office earners could skip a theatrical release altogether.

Highly anticipated titles like the Rani Mukerji-Saif Ali Khan starrer Bunty Aur Babli 2 and Amitabh Bachchan’s Chehre, that had been slated to hit theatres in April, have been postponed by producers in light of the reemergence of the disease. The dismal performance of Salman Khan’s much-vaunted Radhe, which released during the second wave, would likely have spooked media houses further into heading for theatrical releases anytime soon.