New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued new guidelines for opening up of several activities for the public in the areas outside the containment zones. The Unlock 5 guidelines will come in effect from Thursday (October 1). Cinema halls will be allowed to operate with only 50 percent capacity from October 15. According to fresh guidelines, cinema halls, theatres and multiplexes will be permitted to run with up to 50% of their seating capacity. The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting will issue a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the same.


The government had announced the resumption of services including the metro rail in the Unlock 4.0 phase.

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Several Bollywood celebs including Abhishek Bachchan welcome the re-opening of cinema halls and theatres. Abhishek, who was recently seen in ‘Breathe Into The Shadows’, expressed his happiness after the MHA allowed opening of cinema halls. He tweeted, “Best news of the week.”

 (Source- Twitter)

"Yayyyyy did I hear the theatres are reopening!!!!," Divya Dutta tweeted.



Bollywood critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh called it an 'important development'.

PV Sunil, Managing Director, Carnival Cinemas, released a statement after the MHA issued new guidelines for Unlock 5.0. He said that this is the right time to re-open the cinema halls as Diwali 2020 is around the corner.

"We are very happy with this news as we have been waiting for this for quite sometime. Business has been affected so badly but I would say this is the right time to open up with Diwali around the corner. 50 per cent capacity is better than what we had thought would be allowed earlier. In fact, we had been proposing a 50 per cent capacity. It is in keeping up with the norm of every other industry. Most of the countries are also following the same norm. As of now, our software is being modified in accordance with that so that the audience have a seamless experience while booking tickets online," Sunil said in a statement.

"Over all, it is very good news. However, for us to open up, there is a lot of work to be done. The good part is that separate teams handle each property and we also have two weeks, it seems sufficient time for us to prepare. As it is, we have planned for the reopening all this while, so there shouldn’t be a problem. While couple of state governments are yet to give a go ahead on the reopening of theatres, we are likely to open all the major properties in other states in the stipulated time. On the content side, the producers are already having conversations about releasing the films. We have limited time slots, so the content shouldn’t be a problem. In the first few weeks, there may not be an overflow of content but things would resume to normalcy soon," he further said.

Several films including 'Sooryavanshi', '83', 'Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai' and 'Laxmmi Bomb' couldn't release on their scheduled dates as the cinema halls were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Irrfan Khan and Radhika Madan starrer 'Angrezi Medium' couldn't enjoy a long run at the box office after the government decided to close the theatres, cinema halls and multiplexes due to the Coronavirus crisis.