Segregate guidelines for Inside Theatre, Exit guidelines and General Guidelines for movie goers

Good news for movie goers! After an embargo of close to seven months due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the cinema halls in the country will come to life from today onwards. According to the unlock guidelines issued by the Central government, the cinema halls will be allowed to function from October 15 with adequate social distancing guidelines. Among the major guidelines that are to be strictly followed by the management of the cinema halls is not to breach the cap on 50 percent occupancy of the cinema halls. Below are the guidelines issued by the central government for cinema goers as well as the theatre operators.

COVID-19 guidelines: Inside theatre

The cinema halls are to function on only half of their seating capacity.

One seat will be kept vacant between two persons in the cinema halls.

Vacant seat to be compulsorily tagged with “Not to be occupied”, according to the guidelines shared by the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

All the people will have to keep their face mask on throughout the entire duration of the film.

Operators of cinema halls have been advised to keep the temperature of the hall fixed at 23 degree celsius.

Proper ventilation in the hall is mandated to avoid the spread of the infection.

Guidelines for Theatre Entry

Mandatory thermal screening at the entry gates.

Only asymptomatic individuals will be let inside the theatre.

In order to avoid crowding at the end of the show, shows will be timed in a staggered manner.

Adequate number of ticket counters to avoid crowding at the counters

General guidelines

Theatre operators to promote advance booking and keep counters open the whole day.

Frequent visits outside the hall during intermission/break should be avoided by customers.

Use of the Aarogya Setu app advised in the guidelines.

Government has also advised in favour of cashless transactions

No spitting will be allowed outside or inside the premises of the cinema halls.

Which states are opening Cinema halls

Most state governments have allowed the opening of theatres from October 15 in accordance with the central government guidelines including the Delhi government, West Bengal government, Uttar Pradesh among others. However, Maharashtra has cautiously not allowed the opening of cinema halls until the end of this month.

With several films having already been released on the Over The Top (OTT) platforms, the cinema operators are expected to re-release the same set of films on the bigger screen. Also, many cinema halls are looking ahead at releasing the films of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput who allegedly committed suicide earlier this year at his Mumbai flat.