Weighed down by Covid losses, Mysuru theatres to close from today

Shilpa P. | NT

Mysuru: Mysureans will miss watching movies in single screen theatres in Mysuru from Friday, as the owners of all the eight theatres in the city have decided to close down operations until Covid restrictions are lifted. They have been incurring losses due to pandemic restrictions such as 50 per cent occupancy, night curfew and weekend curfew.

“Each cinema theatre is losing Rs 5-10 lakh each month for the past two years ever since Covid began. Already 49 theatres in the State, including six in Mysuru, have shut down forever during the period. At least two more theatres in Mysuru are on the verge of closure,” said M.R. Rajaram, secretary of Mysore city film exhibitors association and Vice president of Karanataka film exhibitors federation. He also owns Gayathri theatre in Mysuru.

Rajaram told News Trail, “After the State government came up with the new Covid guidelines, three weeks ago producers of three major Kannada movies and three major other language movies decided not to release them until the restrictions are lifted. While each theatre had at least four shows per day, we had to cancel one show at 7.30pm/8pm due to night curfew. We see 50 to 60 percent of the entire week’s collection during the weekend from Friday to Sunday. Now that there is a weekend curfew, we are losing that. Also with 50 per cent of the occupancy, we are forced to give 50 per cent salary to our employees. We have at least 12 to 25 employees who depend directly and 15 to 20 employees who indirectly depend on each theatre,” he said.

He said that in the 1980s, Karnataka had the highest number of theatres in the country (1,200) and Mysuru had 24 theatres, but at present there are only 587 theatres in the State. During the first and second Covid waves, 49 single screen theatres in Karnataka were closed forever and in Mysuru Shanthala, Lakshmi, Saraswathi, Prabha, Sterling and Skyline had to down shutters.

And now in Mysuru, there are only eight theatres including Gayathri, Sangam, Rajkamala, Woodlands, Lido, Padma, Thibbadevi and Balaji and they are facing hardship. He pointed out that the state government earns Rs 1,300 crores as GST every year from theatres and if the restrictions are not lifted, “we will slowly lose all the theatres”.

He argued that since the third wave Covid symptoms are mild, not requiring hospitalization, restrictions must be relaxed.