West Bengal is allowing cinemas to reopen, will it bring relief to industry?

Annually, Bengali cinemagoers contribute Rs 62 crore to the box office while the cinema business in the country is losing anywhere between Rs 5,800 crore and Rs 7,800 crore a month.

Maryam Farooqui

September 27, 2020 / 01:54 PM IST

Representative image

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that cinemas will reopen in West Bengal from October 1 even though there is no communication from the Centre on allowing theatres to resume business following the lockdown.

Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi said in a tweet that it was a sign. While Banerjee's move will bring some respite, cinemas, shut for seven months now, will need a lot more to get the business going.

For now, there is some movement at least. One state is allowing cinemas to open their doors, though as a market, West Bengal does not contribute significantly to the overall box office numbers.

According to industry estimates, while the Indian film industry has been growing at 10 percent in the last four years, since 2016, the Bengali film industry’s collections have been falling by a third every year.

Annually, Bengali cinemagoers contribute Rs 62 crore to the box office against Rs 1,400 crore each brought in by Tamil and Telugu populations.

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