COVID-19 woes: Multiple problems for single screen owners in absence of new releases

Owners of single-screen cinemas in Delhi-NCR look up to the government for monetary relief
COVID-19 woes: Multiple problems for single screen owners in absence of new releases

Single-screen cinema owners in Delhi-NCR are ready to open doors for moviegoers and have all the SOPs stated by the Ministry of I&B in place, but “where is the new content?” they ask.

In the absence of new releases, these cinema hall owners do not want to restart operations recycling movies released eight to 10 months ago.

On the contrary, they say the fixed charges of electricity and water they have been paying during the government mandated lockdown period be either subsidised or charged on actual usage.

“With no new films releases, Covid-19 cases increasing every day and no vaccine in sight, not many are likely to visit cinema halls, so the future looks uncertain,” says Ravinder Gupta, Owner of Milan Cinema, Karampura.

He feels the government needs to devise a way in this period of uncertainty to help the industry till normalcy returns.

“The first step should be to avoid the fixed charges and offer a subsidy on electricity bills for a few months or some tax rebates,” he suggests. 

Amba Cinema Director, Ambani Shankar, elaborates that as cinema is categorised as an industry, a fixed charge is set as a minimum to be paid for electricity and water usage “as the facilities were laid out specially for your consumption.”

For all these years, Shankar says, cinema hall owners never defaulted.

“The issue is of electricity consumption during the lockdown which was minimal as the cinema hall was shut and only one security guard was on duty. How much would it amount to?” But Shankar says he still ended up paying the fixed charges for this period, which ran into lakhs. 

This was also the case with the Delhi Jal Board. Liberty Cinema Owner, Rajan Gupta, suggests that the government should allow the building to be used for other purposes with mandatory rules and regulations till the cinema halls become operational once again.

“That would help us survive better and not empty our pockets completely. But the government has been unable to configure it though we have been forwarding our requests since May 2020. A decision is yet to be taken,” says Gupta, adding that the government is being unreasonable.

“All restaurants have been allowed to open and sell cooked food, but cinema halls can only sell packaged food. When we too, like the restaurateurs, have a licence, then why this restriction on only packaged food? In a cinema hall, a canteen is not allowed to function till there is a restaurant licence, so these restrictions are not justified,” he says.

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