As we know after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the cinema houses in the state have closed and it is badly affected the business and the owners of these houses are facing acute financial stress. They have also expressed their concern about this issue. However, in a meeting of Maharashtra cabinet conducted on Wednesday some relaxations were given with regards to the protocol of COVID-19 but it did not include reopening of cinemas in the state. This has aggravated the problems and woes of cinema houses. The terms and conditions of entertainment business are so complex that the owners of cinema houses cannot even change the nature of their business due the Covid-19 induced lockdown.
The terms and conditions include if they have to start new business venture at the location of their current cinema houses they have to earmark at least one third of their theatre premises for running a small theatre. This means that if a big theatre has is having the capacity to accommodate 1000 people they will have to cut down this capacity to 250,but will not be allowed to shut down theatre business completely. Besides, the theatre owners to also follow Standard Operating Procedure(SoP) like maintain physical distance which would entail them to allow spectators in the cinema houses only on alternate seats. Cinema houses also seek industrial status to cinema houses and include them in MSME category. And after registration in MSME category the owners would apply to Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for subsidized power rate.
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