I&B Ministry recommends reopening cinema halls across country in August

July 25: Cinema halls have been shuttered for months due to the coronavirus pandemic in the country. Now the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has recommended to the Union Home Ministry that cinema halls all over the country be allowed to reopen in August.

A formula suggested by I&B secretary Amit Khare mentioned that alternate seats in the first row and then the next row be kept vacant and proceeding in this fashion throughout. Khare said that his ministry’s recommendation takes into consideration the two metre social distancing norm, but tweaks it gently to two yards instead. The Home Ministry still has to revert on the recommendation.

However, the cinema hall owners present in the interaction pushed back and said this formula is unwise and merely running films at 25 per cent auditorium capacity is worse than keeping the theatres shut. The attendees at the meet included media CEOs like N.P. Singh of Sony, Sam Balsara (Madison), Megha Tata, (Discovery), Gaurav Gandhi (Amazon Prime), Manish Maheshwari (Twitter), S. Sivakumar (Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd), and K Madhavan, Star & Disney, and also Chairman, CII Media Committee.