The next few weeks are going to be very dull for Bollywood and other film industries across India. March-April usually lack lustre in the Box Office due to the board exams. But since last 2 years, IPL has been adding fuel to fire and this year it will be harsher. Indian Premier League matches will be screened on the big screen this time onwards. There is no respite in sight for the film makers as exams will get over by March end and IPL will just get hotter by then.

The last few movies that released were commercially disappointing. Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?, Road, Movie, Hello Zindagi, Thanks Maa and Rokkk, all failed to impress at the B.O. Also the upcoming movies are creating no hype, except Right Yaa Wrong which stars Irrfan Khan and Sunny Deol. To boost their revenues in this lean period, cinema owners had to embrace IPL and as some multiplexes have already tied up with IPL for screening the matches.

“It has always been that during the time of exams, the movie lineup has been dull and so to make up for that we are going to screen IPL this time across most of our screens,” said a source from PVR cinemas.

Around 800 screens around India are expected to screen the matches.

Tusshar Dhingra, COO of Big Cinemas, said: “There’s really not much to do (this month), but we are trying to do whatever we can to get that additional footfall. There are three to four big Hollywood releases coming up and some small Bollywood movies. We are also screening IPL in cinemas at standard ticket rates and with additional packages.”