After 7 months, cinemas to open today, catch the first show at noon

GURUGRAM: After nearly seven months of closure, Miraj Maximum in MGF Metropolis Mall will open its doors to visitors at noon on Friday with a screening of ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan’. The cinema will run three shows daily and has decided to slash the cost of tickets to Rs 100, even on weekends.
Like Miraj, many cinemas in the city plan to reopen on Friday with hopes of getting a good response over the weekend, even though the Centre allowed them to resume operations from Thursday.While PVR Star Mall will screen ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’ at 12pm, PVR Ambience Mall will screen the Hollywood action comedy ‘My Spy’ and PVR MGF 4DX at Metropolitan Mall ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan’.
The absence of new movie releases, cinema managers said, is the major challenge now. “The next big release is slated for December. Till then, we will have to run shows with movies which were released earlier this year or last year. We don’t have an alternative. The investment cost has increased since we have to sanitise our premises frequently and seating capacity has been halved due to social distancing norms. Even then, we have decided to reduce the price of our tickets,” said Amit, the cinema manager at Miraj.
This single-screen hall used to screen five shows every day, but will now limit it to three shows as the premises will be sanitised after every screening. Moreover, the interval time has also been increased to 30 minutes to avoid crowds.
At PVR MGF 4DX, preparations for opening the multiplex have been going on from the last one week, the staff said. Anti-microbial film has been laid on all surfaces for the protection of visitors and staff.
“We have three screens and will run two shows every day. The tickets will be priced at Rs 99 for the next three to four weeks. Food will be ordered through QR code scanned digitally. Alternate seating arrangements have been made following the guidelines issued by the government,” said Shubham, an employee.
Cinemas that TOI visited on Thursday said they are expecting a slow start and business is likely to pick only after the festive season, as some movies will be released in theatres by November-end or December. For now, they will screen movies that were released before the lockdown. These include ‘Thappad’, ‘Tanhaji’, ‘Malang’ and ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan’.
Special screening for staff’s families
PVR MGF 4DX organised a special screening of the film Tanhaji for the families of its employees on Thursday. Around 20 people watched the movie. “The idea behind organising a screening for family members was to tell them and our audience also that we are adhering to all safety norms and it is safe to watch a movie here. We are frequently sanitising our halls after every screening, which is why the number of shows is limited now,” cinema manager Gaurav Chauhan said.