GUWAHATI, March 16 - The cinema hall industry of Assam will face losses of more than Rs 3.5 crore due to the closure imposed by the State government as a preventive measure against outbreak of coronavirus pandemic in the State.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, veteran film distributor of the State Shankar Lal Goenka said, �As per the current trend of the industry, due to the closure of cinema halls across the State for ten days, both the State government and the cinema hall owners will lose around Rs 1 crore each in revenue. Again, the distributors and the producers will together incur a total loss of around Rs 1.5 crore.�
Goenka further said that if the closure continues for one month, then the cinema hall industry will face a loss of around Rs 10 crore. �In one month, distributors will lose around Rs 50 lakh and both government and cinema hall owners will lose around Rs 3 crore each. Moreover, producers will lose around Rs 4 crore,� he added.
According to Goenka, no screening has taken place in around 120 cinema halls located across the State from Monday morning.
Sourabh Dutta, a digital cinema service provider of the State informed that he would face a loss of Rs 25-30 lakh due to this closure.
�Some time back the Assamese film industry had incurred huge losses due to the anti-CAA movement. Now the closure notice from the State Government has posed another challenge for us. Last week an Assamese movie was released in the halls. But it ran only for three days and the producer will face a great loss,� another distributor Rajesh More told The Assam Tribune.
More informed that the loss will vary from producer to producer depending on the seating capacity of a cinema hall.
Prominent cinema hall owner Chinmoy Sarma said, �We have cancelled all the advanced bookings as screening has been closed down from last night. This closure will cause a loss of around Rs 30,000 per day and in case of small cinema halls the loss will be around Rs 15,000. The interest on bank loans is a main burden for us in such a situation. It is an inevitable situation, as it is not good to compromise on the health safety issue.�
