Guwahati City cinema halls stare at losses due to lockdown

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The lockdown has hit the entertainment industry in Assam as the ban on shows had been imposed in the State much before March 24 mid-night when the lockdown started in the entire nation. Cinema halls were shut down to stop mass gatherings.

According to reports, cinema halls in Guwahati are losing Rs. 4 to 8 lakh in a month due to the lockdown. There are around 65 cinema halls in the State. Talking to The Sentinel, owner of Anuradha Cinema Hall Chinmoy Sharma said that, "We were the first cinema hall to get closed. We have a huge number of employees and despite our losses we have paid their salaries for the month of March. If the government waives off the electricity charges during the lockdown period it will be a huge relief for the cinema halls. The government should also appeal to the companies that provided equipments to the cinema halls to waive their rental charges."

Sharma underlined that even if the government allows the reopening of halls, the business will still be affected as movies are not releasing due to the lockdown. "Our business depends on Mumbai and until the situation is stable there we will be facing losses. The Hollywood movies contribute around 30 to 40 percent of our total income and the foreign countries are also in crisis; thus, the situation will not be stable till Diwali. To add to the woes, there's very high competition from over the top (OTT) media platforms like Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video etc.," Sharma asserted. 

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