VIJAYAWADA/GUNTUR : With the screening of the much-awaited Solo Brathuke So Better, single-screen theatres reopened with much fanfare. Out of the 54 cinemas in Vijayawada, 15 are single screens all of which remained shut ever since one-day ‘Janata Curfew’ was imposed on March 22.However, the physical distancing and mask wearing norms, put in place to arrest the spread of Covid-19, went for a toss, thanks to the lack of strict enforcement of standard operating procedures issued by the Centre for the cinemas.
At several places, the cinemas deployed two personnel for thermal screening of the audience before they were let into the premises. However, the situation inside the theatres was completely different. Though the management marked seats that should be avoided, the excited movie buffs violated physical distance by seating beside each other without wearing masks. However, this was not the case at the six multiplexes in the city where the Covid-19 guidelines were strictly followed.
th“Almost nine months after the pandemic hit the state, we resumed our operations on Friday with 50 per cent seating capacity as prescribed by the Centre,” said D Srikanth, manager of Raj and Yuvaraj Theatre. Stating that tickets for the above mentioned movie had been booked completely till Tuesday, he hoped that the state government allows them to enhance the ticket fare and maintenance cost on each ticket.
“We have requested the government to allow the single-screen theatres to run with 100 per cent seating capacity as several big and low budget films are ready for release during Sankranti,” said D Ram Babu, proprietor of another single screen cinema in the city. He added if the government implemented the move it would help them to recover some of the losses incurred during the pandemic.
In Guntur, 15 cinemas were thrown open to the public with 50 per cent occupancy. Response from the public was also huge as all tickets were sold out. “We had not expected this kind of response from the public. Though movies have always been an integral part of all our lives, we thought that the turnout would be lower than what it was before the pandemic. All cinemas remained housefull,” owner of another cinema told TNIE.