With the Covid-19 pandemic, movies vanished from the box office calendar.
The Covid-19 has turned out to be a massive speed-breaker for the burgeoning movie exhibition industry of nearly 150 cinema halls in the State.
The pandemic has left a massive impact on the cinema exhibition industry, admits the All Odisha Cinema Hall Owners’ Association.
“Movie theatres were one of the first public spaces to shut with no visibility on when it might reopen. There are fixed costs and capital involved with no revenues,” pointed out association president BK Mohanty.
In a memorandum to the State Government, Mohanty has pointed out that the challenge is trickier for standalone cinema halls that have been battling depleting revenues for years.
The memorandum presented to the State Government has pointed out that without any income, cinema hall owners are paying salary, wages to the staff, paying back the loan and interest, electricity bills as well as other dues of the State Government.
Under this backdrop, Mohanty has urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Industries and MSME Minister Dibya Shankar Mishra, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy and Secretary to Chief Minister VK Pandian to help them out of the crisis.
The AOCHOA has appealed the State Government not to disconnect power line and charge minimum charges till the situation turns favorable.
Earlier, the Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) has also taken up the issue with the State Government.