Bhubaneswar: Although the government has allowed shopping malls and gyms to operate in strict compliance with Covid-19 guidelines after several months of lockdowns, cinema halls in the state are yet to get the green signal to resume shows.
The big screens have remained shut since March this year when the first lockdown was imposed. The financial burden on City theatres is getting heavier each passing day as maintenance and equipment costs, salary bills and other expenditure keep piling up, without any income.
Meanwhile, the over-the-top (OTT) platforms releasing new movies has emerged as an additional headache for the cinema halls.
Speaking to Orissa POST, Maharaja Cinema Hall owner Biswajit Mohapatra said, “Before Lockdown-1 was announced in March, we had renovated the theatre with new seats and furnished the entire picture palace. We were disinfecting the theatre space everyday as a precautionary measure. However, despite all the precautions, the government has again declared a lockdown for cinema halls.”
Frequent lockdowns have hampered the maintenance of film equipment and machines which may go out of order if they remain non-functional, he mentioned. “We are feeling the pinch of maintenance costs as expenditures don’t stop though halls are closed,” Mohapatra added.
“We had requested the government to stop sending us power bills as there is no business at all. However, we are getting bills of Rs 50,000 every month. We have incurred a loss of around Rs 20-30 lakh as release of films on big screens has stopped,” he added.
He also said it would take more than a year for them to recover the losses because no producer will be ready to release movies even if the restrictions are removed.
“We had written to both the state and Union governments in this regard but are yet to get any assurance,” said Mohapatra.
Owner of Sriya-Swati-Stutee Cine Complex Bijendra Mohanty said, “Gone are the days when people treat a movie ticket as a prize catch. Emergence of television channels, pirated CDs and OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime has put a dent on our business.”
He said that half of around 90 cinema halls in the state would see closure by yearend, if Covid-19 pandemic does not subside soon.
Mohanty, who is also president of All Odisha Cinema Hall Owner’s Association, said that they had written to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urging him to exempt minimum demand charges on electricity bills.
Odisha Film Development Corporation (OFDC) chairman Kuna Tripathy said that there is no decision yet on reopening of cinema halls either by the Centre or by the state government.
“The cinema halls might be allowed to reopen in September with 50 per cent occupancy rule but that again depends on the situation during the coming month. We know the plight of cinema halls. We are in talks with the government and will hold a meeting with the cinema hall owners’ association and producers by the last week of August.”
Filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda said that even if cinema halls resume operations in adherence to Covid SOPs, viewers would still not feel safe to enter the theatres. “Therefore, it will be a challenging task to bring the audience back to cinema halls soon,” Panda said.
Earlier this year, Jayashree talkiesin Cuttack has stopped screening movies for good. Before that, some cinema halls in Cuttack, Bhadrak and other places in the state had also brought the curtains down.
Arindam Ganguly, OP