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The announcement of the global premiere of Shoojit Sircar’s quirky drama Gulabo Sitabo on Amazon Prime video was announced recently. This indicated that filmmakers are looking to release movies on OTT platforms as restrictions on theatres and malls get extended. Now according to Ajay Bijli, Chairman and Managing Director of PVR, the cinema halls are likely to reopen soon.
The shutdown of the cinemas is causing a huge financial loss to the entertainment industry. Though biggies like Sooryavanshi and 83’ are ready for release, they can’t release as just like other non-essential businesses, the movie theatres will have to remain closed too. Now the chairman and managing director of PVR, Ajay Bijli has addressed this situation.
In a recent interview with CNBC-TV18, Ajay Bijli said – “After this new lockdown 4.0, there is still no visibility of when cinemas will open but we had always taken enough forecasts in our assessments that we would open 1st July onward. I got some indication that malls may open from June 15, but malls have a very strong inter-dependence on cinemas as well because cinemas do generate footfalls. So, I think about two weeks or a maximum of three weeks after the malls opening, we should open. A lot of films have bunched up together which are ready and even post production is over, so I do believe a lot of those movies will start probably releasing from July 15 onwards. They may have some trial period where even we need to get our act together; get the cleanliness going; train the staff and all that for the new way to go about until the vaccine comes and people’s fears come down. So I’m looking at maximum by mid-August for things to really pick up.
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