Theatre owners to urge Telangana govt to permit reopening cinemas

The Telangana ExhibitorsAssociation (theatre owners) on Saturday urged the stategovernment to allow them to reopen cinema theatres with theCentre permitting it from October 15 in its recent guidelinesand also sought some relief in view of the losses incurredduring the last seven months.

The Associations representatives would soon meetstate Cinematography Minister T Srinivas Yadav to request himto permit re-opening of the theatres (single screen) fromOctober 15, Association leader Vijayender Reddy told P T I.

The Association is hopeful of a positive response, hesaid.

The theatres have remained closed since March 15 andeach theatre is incurring an expenditure of about Rs threelakhs per month in Hyderabad and about Rs two lakhs per monthin the districts though they remained closed, he said.

The Association had already requested the stategovernment to waive property tax and not to collect fixedelectricity charges during the period the theatres remainedclosed, Reddy said.

The Association comprises about 650 members in thestate, he said.

The owners of theatres are ready to take COVID-19prevention measures like provision of sanitizers.

Though the theatre owners are not hopeful of a largerturnout of audience for the present in view of pandemic, theyhave decided to reopen the movie halls now as things mayimprove by January next year, Reddy added.

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