Cinema halls have been shuttered since the end of March after COVID-19 became a source of major health concern. Since then, there have been no shoots and no movie releases. That has obviously affected the businesses of many theatre owners. When the Government decided to ease lockdown slowly, theatres fell on the third phase of consideration. MHA released the Unlock guidelines on May 30 saying cinema halls, gymnasiums, swimming pools entertainment park  and others will open in phase III. But all that depended on how the government assessed the situation. August was anyway seen as the month which could see some activity at the cinema halls. Now we hear the I & B Ministry has recommended the reopening of the same next month during a closed-door industry interaction with CII Media Committee on Friday. West Bengal Extends Lockdown in Containment Zones Till July 31; Educational Institutes, Cinema Halls, Gyms & Swimming Pools to Remain Shut

As per an IANS report, Amit Khare, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Secretary, hinted about the same in the meeting. He also informed that the final decision will be taken by Home Ministry Secretary Ajay Bhalla. Khare suggested the opening of halls all over India by as soon as August 1 or as late as by August 31. The seating arrangement suggested her is that every alternate seat in the first row and the next row be kept empty. The whole auditorium will follow the same arrangement. Khare also mentions that his ministry acknowledges the 2m social distancing norm and further tweaks it to 2 yards.

However, the owners of these cinema halls, who were present at this meeting, aren't very happy about the 25% capacity arrangement. According to them, it is worse than keeping the facility shut. As per the report, the meeting was attended by Channel heads like CEO NP Singh of Sony, Sam Balsara (Madison), Megha Tata, (Discovery), Gaurav Gandhi (Amazon Prime), Manish Maheshwari (Twitter), S Sivakumar (Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd), and K Madhavan, Star and Disney, and also Chairman, CII Media Committee, among others.

The Home Ministry is yet to react to the same.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 25, 2020 02:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).