Nagpur: The last one year has seen varying degrees of lockdown and unlocking for businesses.
But for a few in Nagpur district, the shutters have been virtually down ever since the pandemic started.
Gyms, amusement parks and cinema theatres had either not opened at all or did so for only a brief period.
While they look forward to unlocking, business owners say there are some concerns too.
For movie theatres, the initial hiccup starts with ‘content’.
Movie distributor Manohar Wadhwani said, “Immediately there are no new releases lined up because producers want maximum circuits to be covered, if not a pan-India release.
So unless movie theatres are open simultaneously in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru etc it won’t be financially viable for producers.” Rohit Buty, promoter of Buty Cineplex (previously Smruti), said, “At least we won’t be starting this month and that’s because we are not convinced that a strong response will be there from the public.” Sanjay Surana, promoter Kamal Talkies said, “I will wait for at least three weeks because the government can again change its decision.
So no point in restarting all my overhead expenses to again shut down.” Multiplexes are however preparing to open in line with the expected guidelines.
Venkat Raman, general manager of Inox Multiplex said, “Once the order is issued we will require three to four days to prep up the premises for public screening.” In neighbouring Wardha, where movie theatres ran for a couple of months, owners are planning for their next round.
Pradeep Bajaj, promoter of Durga and Ganesh theatres said, “We did reasonably well earlier this year due to some new releases, before lockdown happened due to the second wave.
I hope new movies are available for release so that people come back.” For gyms, the concern is about seeing footfalls getting back to normal.
Arnold Francis, owner of Gold Gym said, “I am sure initially there will be a reluctance among people to come, hence it will take quite some time for things to be normal.
When we were given permission earlier, things had started to slowly come back to normal before being closed down in March again,” said Francis.
Amusement and water parks briefly got permission to open since the pandemic last year, and promoters hope that business will be back.
Gaurav Choukasey, director of Lighthouse Water Park and Rajkamal Water Sports (Khindsi) said, “Monsoon season is when business is the slowest because people avoid water parks.
Even resorts operate at below average occupancy level.
So it’s hard to predict what kind of response we will get once permission comes.”