Unlock 5.0: Movie theatres in Bengaluru to wait for a day in anticipation of weekend crowd

Bengaluru, Oct 15: Several theatres in Bengaluru did not open for public on Thursday and preferred to wait for a day in anticipation of the weekend crowd on Friday.

After six months of closure due to the lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, the Centre allowed cinema halls to open from Thursday as part of Unlock 5.0.

"We are starting only on Friday. So far as I know, all the cinema halls are going to open on Friday as per the decision taken by the cinema hall owners and managers at a meeting on Wednesday," Prakash, the manager of Veeresh Theatre on Magadi Road told news agency.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka government issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on Thursday for cinema halls.

a. Movie theatres in containment zones will not open.

b. There should be a mandatory distance of six feet between each person and people have to wear masks all the time.

c. The theatre authorities will have to arrange hand sanitisers and thermal screening of movie-goers before letting them in.

d. The guidelines asked people to follow the general protocol while sneezing and coughing.

e. The theatre owners have been directed to maintain sufficient time gap between the screening of two movies in the same hall.

f. They have been instructed not to allow more than 50 per cent viewers of the total capacity.