India’s worst COVID-hit state to reopen Cinema halls in October
India’s western state of Maharashtra has decided to reopen cinema halls and drama theaters in the state from October 22.
The reopening of the cinema halls, which are shut since April after the 2nd wave of COVID-19 struck, are subject to compliance of the standard operating procedure to be issued shortly to curb the spread of coronavirus, said Uddhav Thackeray, chief minister of the state on Saturday.
Maharashtra, the worst aff-ected Indian state with over still over 42,000 active cases of COVID-19, has around 1,000 cinema screens that contributes 25-30 percent of the box office collection in the country.
In 2020, India was the fifth-largest box office market in terms of revenues of 0.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, according to media analysts.
The cinema exhibition indu-stry has run into an extremely adverse and hostile situation in India during pandemic as it was among the first venues to be shut down and may be the last sector to reopen after schools and religious places in the country.