The managements of cinema halls and multiplexes across Uttar Pradesh were on Wednesday putting COVID-19 protocols in place on the premises, which are set to reopen after seven months.
Though the government has allowed cinema halls to resume operations from Thursday, most of them will start screening movies from Friday.
In state capital Lucknow, Wave Multiplex assistant manager Rishi Mishra said all employees were being tested for COVID-19 and only those who test negative will be put on duty. They will have to wear masks and gloves, he added.
Mishra said the hall will be sanitised after every show.
Novelty Cinema manager Rajesh Tandon said all employees underwent tests for the disease on Wednesday. Their reports will come on Thursday, and the hall will be opened to the public on Friday, he said, adding that tickets will be sold online.
Shubham Cinema too will reopen on Friday.
In Kanpur, cinemas halls will sell tickets to only 50 per cent of their seats, and wearing masks inside the theatres will be compulsory, District Magistrate Alok Kumar Tiwari said.
To ensure public safety, proper social distancing procedures will be followed and only members of the same family will be allowed to sit together, Superintendent of Police (East) Raj Kumar Agarwal said.
All cinema hall owners and associations have been directed to follow these guidelines, failing which strict action will be taken against them, the SP added.
Manager of Sapna Hall, Mangal Prasad, however, claimed that no written order or guideline has yet been issued to them regarding the reopening of cinema halls.
A report from Gorakhpur said Vijay Cinema will open from November 1. Owner Sandeep Tekriwal said sanitisation and some upgradation work was going on.
He added that the seating capacity will come down to less than 40 per cent after following COVID-19 protocols.
The city’s INOX cinema hall manager, Manish Ojha, said viewers will have to undergo thermal scanning before entering the hall.
AD Cinema in the city will open from Friday, its owner Niraj Das said. COVID-19 protocols will be followed and sanitation of the hall is underway, he added.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday issued guidelines for reopening of cinema halls, theatres and multiplexes outside containment zones in the state with 50 per cent of their capacity from Thursday.
On the cinema hall premises, there should be a gap of six feet between two individuals in the common and the waiting areas, according to the guidelines.
Chief Secretary R K Tiwari issued a statement saying arrangements should be made for contactless sanitiser dispenser and thermal screening of individuals before they enter the auditorium.
Only asymptomatic people are to be allowed entry, it added.
Theatres across the country had to shut their doors in March due to the coronavirus-led lockdown. In its unlock guidelines issued on September 30, the Ministry of Home Affairs had allowed the reopening of cinema halls from October 15.
