BENGALURU: After much ruckus over the screening of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, the film finally hit Bengaluru theatres. There were 140 shows screened on Wednesday evening in the city and interestingly, most of them were sold out.
Though the film was to release on January 25 as per the Supreme Court direction, many theatres in Bengaluru - single screens as well as multiplexes - started screening the film from Wednesday evening itself. Inox, PVR, Cinepolis, Lido and many more theatres started screening the two-hour-45-minutes film 6pm onwards. The ticket prices ranged from `250 to `1,000 per seat.
To avoid any untoward incident, most of the theatre and multiplex authorities informed the local police about screening the film.
Mahesh L, manager at SPI Cinemas in GT Mall on Magadi Road, said they opened ticket booking on Sunday itself. “Till Thursday, two out of five screens will show Padmaavat. The two screens have been house full. Friday onwards, five shows will play in the two screens. We have informed Kempapura Agrahara police station as a precautionary measure. We don’t want to take any chances,” he said.
A spokesperson for Inox said, “At Inox, we gave two screens to Padmaavat and most of the seats were booked. It is a good sign that even on weekdays, the seats are full. We will increase the number of screens from Friday.”
The bookings were open from Monday itself. “Eight of our friends booked for the movie on Monday. When we booked, almost the entire theatre was full,” Ashish Raghavendra, an engineering student, said.
Sudarshan R K, who works with a software company in ITPL, said he too booked for four tickets on Monday. “Since there was news about a bandh taking place on Thursday, we were not sure if the film would be screened. So we booked for Wednesday. I am glad we got the tickets. Because when I checked again to buy tickets for my colleagues on Wednesday morning, it was houseful,” he said.
All peaceful in Karnataka
Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy said that in Karnataka there is no trouble as far as releasing the film is concerned. “A few months ago, BJP MLC Leher Singh and others gave a petition to us to ban the movie in Karnataka. The state government has no role in playing the movie and we conveyed the same to them,” he said. When protests against the film erupted recently in the state, the government had provided security actress Deepika Padukone’s family in Bengaluru.
Padmaavat
Day 1 of release - January 24
140 shows (6pm to 10 pm)
Most shows running housefull
Ticket prices range from K250 to K1,000