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Tirupati: Exhibitors stare at blank screens
♦ Theatre owners are finding it difficult to pay salaries, power bills due to lockdown ♦ Even after lockdown is lifted, they face a daunting task of ensuring social distancing norms by reducing capacity ♦ Some optimists are expecting a return to normalcy as big ticket releases like RRR are awaited
Tirupati: Some of the exhibitors claim that Covid-19 has affected the film industry more than individuals. They feel that the road to recovery for theatres would not be easy task and it could take months to put up houseful boards again.
Actually, Tirupati city boasts of dozen theatres and around 1,000 families, including theatre staff, canteen, parking contractors, along with distributors, exhibitors are dependent on theatres for their livelihood.
Almost all exhibitors paid their staff in full for March. For April, they are planning to cut the pay by 50 per cent and supply essentials, while a few exhibitors sacked their staff.
Talking about this gloomy scenario, Sidda Reddy, manager of Krishna Teja group theatres, said, "All our employees are having Provident Fund accounts and we have asked them to withdraw 70 per cent of it during these difficult times."
Meanwhile, theatre owners have to bear the huge electricity expenses as well.
For a single theatre, the bill runs anywhere between Rs 70,000 to 90,000 without screening a single show. As long as the spread of virus continues, it would not be possible to run the shows and make people sit next to each other by overlooking social distancing norm, adds Sidda Reddy.
Whereas, a few exhibitors are planning to remove seats to leave mandatory distance between two chairs, but it is still in nascent stage.
However, P Abishek, proprietor of PGR Movies, is hopeful that crowds will turn up in theatres with films like 'RRR'. "We are hoping that star-studded movies will draw viewers back to theatres. Even for that we have to wait for a few more months."
