The film industry is in a slump. The grip of coronavirus has become more cumbersome for the already limping industry. So in the face of more losses, the old cinema hall Abhisar of the capital is being demolished. Another cinema hall of the same owner, Neptune, is also being shut down permanently.
Safar Ali Bhuiyan, one of the owners of the cinema hall, said that there is a plan to demolish ‘Abhisar’ located at the corner of Tikatuli in the capital and build a community center there instead.
He told Bangladesh Post that he has to count the loss of Tk 4 lakh every month behind the cinema hall. On top of this, due to the closure of the hall in Coronavirus, the hall will be demolished. Construction of the five-storey building will begin as soon as the coronavirus situation slowly returns to normal.
He said, “The building will basically have a community center. Besides, I will rent a shop selling bank-insurance and scientific equipment on other floors.
Although the 52-year-old ‘Abhisar’ has been demolished, there are plans to keep a small cinema hall with 150 seats in the same building for keeps sake to preserve the name as a memento. However, there is no hall named Neptune anymore.
There were about 40 staff and 6 managers working in the 1,000-seat ‘Abhisar’ cinema hall. He also said that he won’t be able to keep one manager and 6 staff members for the small hall.
Apart from Abhisar-Neptune, Safar Ali was the owner of 11 halls including the Agomon-Otithi of Basabo, Surovi of Narsingdi, Sohag of Ghorashal, Moonlight of Adamji and Puonam of Jatrabari.
In the face of losses, all but two of the halls have been shut down or have been turned into markets or sold. One cinema hall after another has been closed for several years due to the crisis in the film industry. According to the Cinema Hall Association, the number of theaters has dropped from 1,435 to 172.
In October last year, the capital’s well-known cinema halls Rajmani and Razia were closed and multi-storey buildings were being constructed insteaad.
All the cinema halls have been closed for about two and a half months due to coronavirus. Although the situation is normal, the owners are also uncertain whether the audiences will return.
In the current crisis, 10 to 12 more halls are expected to close permanently, according to the hall leaders.
Even though the cinemas are not being screened, the owners are struggling to pay the workers. On the other hand, the staff of the hall is also spending their days in fear of losing their jobs.
In such a situation, the people involved in cinema are worried about whether the film industry will be able to turn around ever again.
