Exhibitors and trade circles are hoping that the Government will lift the existing restrictions on movie theatres from August 1st.

Senior film producer Suresh Babu who has more than four hundred theaters under lease across Telugu states says he wouldn’t reopen his theaters even if the restrictions are lifted.

“It is highly risky to open movie theaters at this point of time. It will put lives at risk as staying in movie theaters for three hours when the coronavirus cases are on the rise is extremely hazardous,” he opined.

“In China they had opened movie theaters after the number of cases went down, but they had closed them again. We have to take it as an example and shouldn’t think from the business perspective. Yes, we are incurring huge losses, but nothing comes before people’s health. I don’t think our Government will give permission to open movie theaters at this point,” Suresh said.

“Screening shows for a limited audience by selling one third or one fourth of capacity is not profitable for producers too. And if there is an instance or two where people got infected by going to a movie theatre then it would drive away audiences from cinemas for a longer time period. Hence, we should wait until the normalcy is restored.