Hyderabad: Corona fear keeps away cinema buffs

Hyderabad: The cinema theatres have opened across Telangana on Friday for the first time after May when the government had imposed complete lockdown.

But the fear of Covid continues to haunt the people as the turnout of movie buffs was not more than 35 per cent even though some new movies were released on Friday.

Since there have been no big star films released in recent times, only a few visitors turned up to watch the films, claimed theatre owners. Citizens said the spread of Covid threat was haunting their minds.

Hence people are not ready to come to theatres to watch films.

The management of a multiplex at the RTC crossroads in the city told The Hans India that three Telugu films have been released on Friday, but the response was disappointing.

The revenue generated from such low turnout would not help them even to meet the cost of the theatre maintenance and power bills for a day. They said maintaining the multiplexes is a cost intensive affair. Unless there was at least 50 per cent occupancy they cannot run the theatres.

In the districts too, theatres witnessed low turnout as there is no film with star heroes being screened. Theatres owners say that people are still worried about the possibility of a third wave and hence are not willing to come to theatres.

A visitor to the local cinema theatre P Sushma said, "it is a good experience to enjoy the movie in a theatre after a long gap. Though we were a little scared, we came in a group to watch the new movie. It's a pleasant experience to watch a movie in the theatre with buddies. We have been missing this experience for a long time."