Cinema halls: Past perfect, present pathetic, future tense

Situation is becoming pathetic for the cinema hall owners in the city to run their business smoothly. The condition is getting from bad to worse for these people who provide a few moments of retreat to the viewers from their mundane problems. The three hours of entertainment in front of the huge screen is slowly being mired by hurdles which the owners are unable to overcome.

Situation is becoming pathetic for the cinema hall owners in the city to run their business smoothly.

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The condition is getting from bad to worse for these people who provide a few moments of retreat to the viewers from their mundane problems. The three hours of entertainment in front of the huge screen is slowly being mired by hurdles which the owners are unable to overcome.

Let's know some facts. Presently, the city boasts of having 14 cinema halls namely Palace, Rajkaran Palace, Sangeet, Gautam, Space Cineplex, Kajal, Jhankar, Payal, Chandralok, Mansarovar, Ajanta, Avtaar, Lakshmi and Vishwamitra. Of these, only a few are able to manage the required finance to screen the latest Bollywood flicks such as Sangeet, Gautam, Space Cineplex, Chandralok and Vishwamitra.

Unfortunately, six of the cinema halls had to be closed down due to certain unavoidable circumstances. Naaz, Roopbani, Pushpraj, Motimahal, Vishambhar and Niranajan were closed down within a span of last 20 years.

According to Ashutosh Agarwal, owner of Sangeet, Gautam and Space Cineplex, "Piracy is forcing the cinema halls to shut down. The evil is so rampant that it is not easy to put a full stop to it and it is slowly eating into our very roots.

Secondly, the power cuts have hampered our growth profusely. We have to depend heavily on generators and added to it is the high cost of diesel which is hitting us hard."

He also cited the problem of entertainment tax in Uttar Pradesh which is much higher as compared to other States. "Taxation is almost 60% in Uttar Pradesh while in Delhi it is just the half. We are helpless on the issue of reducing the ticket charges. Besides, the deteriorating law and order situation in the city is also contributing towards slowing down the business. Very few people specially women turn up for night shows as they feel insecure while returning home at night," he said.

The cinema owners are also forced by law which denies them any right to start any kind of promotional activities within the premises of the hall except for the purpose for which it is opened. No side business, so no extra income to sustain.

Most of the cinema hall owners have taken recourse to screening A- certificate movies which cost them approximately Rs 5000 for a week and they are able to churn the profit of almost Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 from its screening.

Security norms are followed by very few cinema halls. Mohd Aqeel, owner of Rajkaran Palace, who follows the security norms, says that we see to it that the guard checks every entry. The staff could not be retrenched as they are permanent and they have to be paid their salary regularly. This leaves little for the owners to spend some amount on the maintenance of the halls which is another issue needed to be tackled.

With the city awakening to new era of cineplexes, it will become much harder for the small fries to survive in future.