Lockdown After-effects: Single Screen Theatres To Vanish By The End Of This Year?

In Europe and the US the cinemas will be opening soon but as far as India is concerned, the chances of the big screen opening are pretty far-fetched! The government is surely easing restrictions on the lockdown and reopening of theatres are a part of the ‘Unlock India Plan’, it has already been four months since the theatre business is completely shut! The industry has suffered a huge blow. In the past three landmark movie halls — Shanthala and Padma in Mysuru, and Maharani in Chennai — have bitten the dust 

The trade circles are suggesting that cinemas won’t open anytime soon and it will take at least another three more months, i.e. they have chances of reopening in the month of October. Mid-Day quotes Akshay Rathi, who is an analyst as saying, "about 250 to 300 single screens may be wiped out". He rues, "There's no support from any quarter, be it from the film industry or the government. By October, the number of theatres downing its shutters may touch 1000-plus." 

Rathi has further told Mid-Day that the problems will continue to plague the single screens even after they re-open. He has been quoted as saying, “The initial expenditure will be way higher than the revenue coming in.”

The theatre owners' expenditures that includes the maintenance charges, the salaries of the staff cannot be made in the meantime with no help from the government. Manoj Desai, executive director, Gaiety-Galaxy, has been quoted as saying, “The government should do away with GST. We are paying the property tax, BMC tax, and electricity charges. Ideally, these should be excused for the moment."

Gurmeet Singh Seble, MD, Seble Cinemas in Delhi has been quoted as saying, “The Shaheen Bagh protests continued from December to February, and the lockdown came into effect in March. So, single screens here were affected even before the pandemic."

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