Bhandara: Despite Maharashtra Governments green signal to reopen movie theaters, film lovers of Bhandara district may have to wait for the theaters to reopen in the city as the only big cinema hall in the district is not ready yet.
The theaters are permitted to open almost after seven months. The sudden dicision by the government did not gave much time for the theater owners to make the movie halls COVID-19 ready. There is lot of cleaning and technical work to be done before it can host shows again, says theater owner Adarsh Chitra Mandir.
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown normal life out of gear. Among the many things that were hit hard by the virus after lockdown was the entertainment industry.
Where film production took a long break, release of new films also got paused with the closing down of movie theatres to avoid spread of the virus.
But after implementation of mission begin again most of the businesses and market were allowed to open with COVID-19 restriction. Recently the Government has given a nod to open the theatres, with some strict norms to be followed.
Adarsh Chitra Mandir, started on August 15, 1947, has seen many good and bad days but none like this pandemic, says
owner Mohit Dalal.
“The theatre was closed for all these months and there was zero income but the costs of cleaning, electricity, security, maintenance only added to our financial problems,” he said.
“Permission to reopen is only the first step.
Now the film distributors should release films. Old films would not attract audience,” he observed.
Meanwhile, as per the COVID-19 guidelines, Adarsh will allow only 250 people for the show though it has a capacity of 503. A sanitisation machine will be installed at the entrance of the hall.
Dalal is looking to reopen around Diwali and is hopeful that the audience would not let him or Bollywood down.
