KOCHI: Still reeling under the impact of two closures following the first and second waves of the pandemic, theatre owners all over Kerala are keeping their fingers crossed as the government begins to enforce restrictions to contain the third wave of Covid and spread of Omicron cases.
Apprehensive of another shutdown which would completely shatter their already broken financial backbone, the theatre owners are coming up with plans to tide over curbs like night curfew and crowd control. “We don’t think the government, at present, has a plan to impose restrictions on theatres. The movie halls are slowly recovering from the adverse impact of the previous two lockdowns and closing down the facilities now will lead us to a big crisis,” said K Vijayakumar, president of Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala (FEUOK).
He said the exhibitors have collectively decided to rearrange the show timings if the government imposes night curfew. “We will have to think of alternative plans like rearranging show time so that we would be able to complete four shows before 10pm. The theatres screen movies strictly adhering to the Covid protocol. By such measures, we will be able to plan survival during these difficult times,” he added. The theatre owners are also hoping that Vineeth Sreenivasan’s directorial venture ‘Hridayam’ with Pranav Mohanlal in the lead role will help them get good collection.
“We are giving maximum support to the producers who are willing to release the movies in theatres. Though the release of some widely expected other-language movies like ‘RRR’ and ‘Valimai’ has been postponed, there are many Malayalam movies planned for a theatrical release in January and February. These films are expected to do good business,” he added.
The makers of ‘Hridayam’ had already made it clear that if the government did not bring in restrictions like lockdown, Sunday curfew and night curfew, they would release the movie in theatres on January 21.
Meanwhile, there are some big movies like Prithviraj Sukumaran’s second directorial venture ‘Bro Daddy’ that are going to be released through OTT platforms this month.
Keeping their fingers crossed