If reports are to be believed then a week after news that the owner of Mumbai’s iconic Gaiety-Galaxy, Manoj Desai had to take a bank loan to provide salaries to his employees amid the lockdown was published in Mid-Day, Akshay Kumar has now come to rescue!

After contributing to several coronavirus charities and funds (including Rs 25 crore to PM-Cares fund), the actor has now offered financial help to Mumbai's iconic cinema hall, which is suffering big time due to the lockdown.


"Three days ago, I got a call from Akshayji. He offered to provide financial assistance if the scenario continues. It was kind of him to offer help, but we should find a way to sustain ourselves. We have managed to collect enough funds to pay the salaries for this month, but the theatre shutdown will have long-term ramifications. Our focus is to ensure we don't trim staff or resort to pay cuts," says Desai to Mid-Day.

 Mumbai’s iconic Gaiety-Galaxy theatre

Earlier, Manoj and business partner Arun Nair had decided to increase the ticket prices as soon as the cinemas re-opened two weeks after the lockdown. However, after lockdown extension, recovering from a 45-day period is going to be tough. “I will head to Gaiety and Maratha Mandir today to finalise our plan of action for May. We are reworking our plans to ensure that we don’t have to seek support from the industry folk,” said Desai.

Akshay Kumar was busy shooting for his next film Bachchan Pandey before the outbreak of coronavirus forced the industry to stop work and awaits the release of his much-hyped film Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi.