Covid shadow on movie buffs: A tepid opening for cinemas on first day

At Cinepolis in south Delhi's Savitri Complex, the 11:30 am show for Malang: Unleash the Madness, featuring Disha Patani and Aditya Roy Kapur, sold a total of four tickets

As fresh beginnings go, this was as tepid as one could imagine. Even as the Delhi government had allowed theatres to resume operations from October 15, most chose to remain shut on the opening day. PVR, which owns the majority of single-screen theatres and multiplexes in the city, was the most notable absentee. It plans to open its doors to viewers from Friday. Inox is expected to do the same. 

At Cinepolis in south Delhi’s Savitri Complex (among the handful that did open), the 11:30 am show for Malang: Unleash the Madness, featuring Disha Patani and Aditya Roy Kapur, sold a total of four tickets. The single-screen establishment has a capacity of 300, but is seating only 150, in line with Covid-19 protocols. The afternoon show fared only marginally better, with seven people in attendance for the Taapsee Pannu-starrer Thappad. This, even as ticket prices had been slashed from an average of Rs 250 to Rs 100. 

Over at its multiplex in Saket, which seats more than 850 people, there was disappointment with the cinema still closed. “We’d been waiting for so long. But we’ll surely come back tomorrow,” said Kamlesh Pratap Singh, who had come to the DLF Avenue mall with his two sons especially for a movie. Officials said they were awaiting safety clearances from the mall authorities to reopen. 

Delhi is among the 12 states that have permitted theatres to operate — among the others are Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

“It’s just the first day, so we weren’t expecting anything great. We’re hoping that the weekend will bring in some joy,” said a manager at Savitri Complex. 

The ones who turned up at the deserted shopping compound were mostly movie buffs who’d been deprived for nearly seven months. “Even though these are not new releases, watching a film on the screen has its own thrill,” said Kapil Tyagi, who had come from Ghaziabad to watch Thappad.

 Others, such as Atul Kumar, 23, who had travelled from Noida, felt production houses need to start rolling out fresh films. “This (old releases) benefits no one — neither the audience, nor theatre owners,” he said. 

> KOLKATA

The scene was no different in Kolkata, where the bustle of a movie theatre zone was missing, with shops shut and eateries mostly running empty. Most cinema halls remained closed. And the ones that opened had hardly a trickle of audience.

Among those who dropped by at Inox Swabhumi, one of the two Inox multiplexes to reopen, was Class 11 student Rup Das who lives in that area. “When I saw Inox had opened, I called my friend Yubraj Paul and we decided to catch a show of Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. We both have streaming services at home but it has been months since I last visited a theatre,” he said.

STILL REELING
 

> Most theatres in Delhi and Kolkata remained shut; will open today 

> Some shows registered ticket sales in single figures, despite drop in price 

> Not operational for months, a few theatres faced technical glitches 

> Old releases such as Thappad, Malang and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan being screened 

Besides other old releases such as Malang and Thappad, a new Bengali film, Ebhabei Golpo Hok, was screened. But some, like medical representative Satyam Mitra, who was passing by and stopped at the counter to check, were dissuaded by the old titles.

Inox has nine multiplexes in the city and 15 in the state, which has overall some 250 single-screen cinema halls and 100 multiplexes. While most are planning to open in the next couple of days, some intend to hold on till October 21, expecting better footfall during Durga puja. 

“The bigger theatres have to keep in mind the infrastructure and sanitisation cost before they start. In some cases, there are also small technical glitches; like in one theatre, the UPS was not ready,” said Shantanu Roychowdhury, treasurer of Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA).

South Kolkata’s popular single-screen theatre Priya in Rasbehari Avenue is also opening with an old title, Kedarnath, besides Ebhabei Golpo Hok tomorrow.

“We are opening following the old normal schedule of Friday releases,” said Arijit Dutta, the owner of Priya. Despite poor footfall, it is an important start, he said, confident that audience numbers will return to normal in a few months.

While all theatres are following the protocol of 50 per cent occupancy and sanitisation before and after the show, the practice of contactless ticketing is limited mostly to multiplexes. “That is an anti-single-screen policy. If people can go to the market and buy things using cash, a ticket is really not a big deal. And it can also be easily sanitised,” said Dutta.

Earlier, Inox Leisure CEO Alok Tandon said the chain plans to go fully digital, with just an SMS allowing customers to access their seat numbers, the auditorium seating plan as well as order food. “We are also looking to innovate with private screenings where families or smaller groups of guests can book the entire auditorium and enjoy the content of their choice,” he added.