With the State government allowing cinemas to reopen, only some theatres opened in Coimbatore and surrounding districts on Tuesday as theatre owners await the Deepavali festival for opening in a full-fledged manner.
President of Tamil Nadu Theatre and Multiplex Owners’ Association ‘Tiruppur’ M. Subramaniam said that of the 169 theatres in Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode and the Nilgiris districts, only around 50 theatres reopened on Tuesday. As new movies are expected to have a theatrical release on Friday to mark Deepavali, many theatres will reopen only then, he said.
As cinema theatres remained closed for nearly eight months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Tamil movies were released on online Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms. However, Mr. Subramaniam said that this will not affect the number of people coming to theatres. “Those who want to watch in OTT platforms will watch it there, but those who want to watch movies in theatres will keep coming,” he said. The footfall in most of the theatres on Tuesday was only around “10 to 15 %,” according to Mr. Subramaniam.
President of Coimbatore Film Distributors’ Association K. Rajamannar said that many theatres in Coimbatore did not opt to open on Tuesday as it is considered inauspicious and that these theatres will reopen from Wednesday. Those theatres in small towns and in interior parts of the district are likely to open only on Saturday for Deepavali, he said.
Special screening
One of the prominent multiplexes to reopen in Coimbatore on Tuesday was PVR Cinemas in Brookefields Mall.
K. Srinath, General Manager (Coimbatore) of PVR Cinemas, said a special screening of the Tamil movie Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal was screened for COVID-19 frontline workers at 11 a.m. Around 80 nurses and hospital workers from private hospitals who were invited attended the screening, he said.
Safety initiatives such as pasting of anti-microbial films on surfaces and sterilising of all food packaging have been carried out in addition to the usual COVID-19 precautionary measures in the cinema halls, Mr. Srinath said. “After January, people will return to normal lives and will come back to theatres,” he remarked.
Collector’s warning
Coimbatore District Collector K. Rajamani on Tuesday warned that action will be initiated against cinema theatres and multiplexes that do not follow the standard operating procedures.The public must be allowed inside the theatres only if they wear masks and physical distancing norms must be maintained at all times inside the theatres, he said in a release.
Theatres still closed in Ooty
Neither of the two major movie theatres in Udhagamandalam were reopened on Tuesday, with officials in-charge of running the theatres stating that they are taking their time to ensure that precautions are in place to ensure that the Standard Operating Procedures announced by the government are implemented.
