Cinema owners, distributors spark protest, Boney Kapoor stands for '#SupportMovieTheatres'

The Multiplex Association of India comprising of cinema owners, producers, and film exhibitors took to Twitter on August 30 to urge the government to re-open cinema theatres. The theatres have been shut for the last six months owing to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has been ravaging the movie industry. The initiative won the participation of ace filmmaker Boney Kapoor who even in these extraordinary times, plans to stick to the ‘big screen’ outing.

Boney Kapoor tweets support to #savecinemas

The digital protest that goes by the hashtag #SupportMovieTheatres has been gaining momentum on social media. Several people are stepping in and demanding for urgent action to re-open theatres in India to survive the losses. Boney Kapoor shared the picture of a film theatre on Twitter with “#SupportMovieTheatres” written on the 70mm screen. Apart from the producer, the Multiplex Association of India shared a series of posts on Twitter where they described the importance of cinema.

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In the tweet, the association wrote that the cinema Industry is an important part of the country’s culture that supports the economy and millions of livelihoods. In the following post, the association further compared the situation wih other countries and wrote that most of the countries across the world have allowed cinema theatres to operate. Therefore, they requested the government of India to allow the theatres to operate in India as well after a hiatus of almost six months. 

Adhering to the safety norms, the association wrote that they will completely comply with the safety norms to give an ultimate experience. At last, the post read that if the aviation, metro, malls sectors and many more can be allowed to operate, then movie theatres should also be given a chance. According to reports, Bollywood — the Hindi film industry — alone has lost over Rs 1,000 crores owing to the closures and disruption of business since March when the coronavirus restrictions began worldwide. Millions of jobs and livelihood are at stake due to the closure of cinemas.

Sometime back, according to a survey conducted by LocalCircles, seventy-two per cent of people across the country are not in favour of visiting multiplexes and gyms. Out of the rest, 63 per cent are against the resumption of local train services as they feel these are risky in the current COVID-19 crisis. The survey showed that 72 per cent of 34,000 people across 255 districts in the country are in favour of not visiting multiplexes in the next 60 days as they feel it will be risky, while only six per cent felt otherwise.

(With inputs from PTI)

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