Bengaluru cinema halls reopen after 7 months but see less footfall

A few cinema halls reopened in Bengaluru on Thursday after a gap of 7 months with some film enthusiasts venturing warily to watch films amid a slew of restrictions imposed on multiplexes and theatres. Most cinema halls in the city remained closed despite the relaxation of rules.

A few cinema halls including Sharada Theatre reopened with 50% seating capacity but saw few visitors trickle in during the day. A report stated that a fraction of the avaialble tickets were sold for the morning show on Thursday. In and around the city's Majestic area, single-screen theatres remained shut.

Among multiplexes, six out of 16 PVR cinemas in the city will be open for the public on Friday. This includes the PVR Cinemas at Orion Mall, Vega City Mall, Orion Uptown, GT World Mall, Park Square Mall and Vaishnavi Sapphire Mall, Deccan Herald reported.

The decision to open on Friday was taken with the expectation of a crowd building during the weekend. "We are starting only on Friday. So far as I know, all the cinema halls are going to open on Friday as per the decision taken by the cinema hall owners and managers at a meeting on Wednesday," Prakash, the manager of Veeresh Theatre on Magadi Road told PTI.

While theatres and multiplexes remain closed in states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Chhattisgarh, they opened in several places, including Karnataka, Delhi and parts of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, with stringent do’s and don'ts in keeping with the new normal.

Apart from physical distancing rules and 50% seating capacity, theatre owners have been directed to maintain sufficient time gap between the screening of two movies in the same hall.