First day, poor show as Bengaluru theatres reopen after seven months

Few cine-goers turned up as theatres reopened after almost seven months. This was the scene at Sharadha Theatre in Bengaluru on Thursday. DH PHOTO/JANARDHAN B K

Most cinema theatres in the city remained closed on Thursday, the day they were supposed to reopen after over seven months of Covid-induced shutdown. The handful that did reopen ended up playing films for fewer than 10 patrons.

In the Majestic area, the original heartland of the Kannada film industry, iconic single-screen theatres remained shut. Bhoomika, Santosh, Nartaki, Menaka and Movieland remained shut. So did Cauvery on Sankey Road. Cinema managers said they were considering resuming shows gradually from Friday. “It all depends on people’s response,” one of them said.

Speaking of multiplexes, only six of the 16 PVR cinemas in Bengaluru will resume operations on Friday: Orion Mall, Vega City Mall, Orion Uptown, GT World Mall, Park Square Mall and Vaishnavi Sapphire Mall.

PVR Forum, Koramangala, will take another week to screen the movies. “We are making sure that there are no loopholes from our end in terms of taking all the necessary safety measures and following the protocols announced by the government,” cinema manager Sanuj Sajan told DH.

The film industry, which recently resumed shooting, has been hoping for normality to return at the earliest but the expectations remain modest.

Nearly 10 new big-budget films of A-listers, including Puneeth Rajkumar, Yash, Darshan and Sudeep, besides 50 medium- and small-budget movies, are ready for release, according to producer ‘Rockline’ Venkatesh.

“No producer has the confidence to release their films. The fear of very few people turning up at the theatres has forced them to just wait and watch. At the same time, we reckon that people may wait to see new content in theatres. It may take more than a month for things to fall into place,” Venkatesh told this newspaper.

The owners of most single-screen theatres fear incurring losses as they anticipate a poor response from cine-goers. Anand, manager at Kamakya Theatre, Kathriguppe, said they would reopen only after tracking the response at other cinema halls.

“We will run old films. I doubt even 50% of the seats will be filled up. We will not hike ticket prices as that will further discourage the public,” a manager said.

Among the cine-goers who came on the first day, there was no sense of joy. The fear of Covid-19 spreading in closed spaces loomed large on many. Others said there was no good film to draw them in.

“The fun of watching a film on the big screen has been ruined by the fear of Covid-19. We may have to keep watching films on OTT platforms until things become safe,” said Harish Gowda, a cine-goer.