Owners of 23 closed cinema halls in Calcutta are working hard to run their business by developing a ?survival strategy? in which they will urge the state government to allow them convert the closed halls into multiplexes. Most of these owners want to reopen the halls after converting those into multiplexes. Side by side, they want to use a smaller portion of their existing structure as shopping malls.

?Cinema halls are facing huge financial losses as they are not getting adequate viewers. Calcutta is not the only metropolitan where hall owners are facing the problem. It has now become a problem for all the metropolitan cities. As far as I know, many states like Andhra Pradesh have already adopted an exit policy to help the hall owners to run their business by allowing them to use their premises for other commercial purposes. But there is no such policy in Bengal and we want such a policy for our existence,? said L.K.Kankaria, owner of the Orient cinema which has been closed very recently.

A preliminary estimate prepared by the hall owners association, Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA) revealed that it will require at least Rs 5 crore to convert a cinema hall in central Calcutta into a multiplex. ?If we pull down the existing structure of a hall in central Calcutta and set up multiplex, it will require about Rs 5 crore. But if we maintain the existing structure of a particular hall and make some alterations inside it to make it a multiplex, the cost will be around Rs 1 crore,? said Shyamal Dutta, a senior official of the EIMPA.

He also said that they had also discussed the issue with some banks and other financial corporations who are ready to give loans to the owners once the state government allows the hall owners to carry out the conversion work. ?Financial positions of closed hall owners would not allow them to bear the huge cost required to convert outwardly or inwardly their halls into multiplexes. Some banks and financial corporations are ready to give them loan after government?s clearance,? said Dutta.

All these 23 cinema halls in the city are lying closed for the past five to six years or more because of inadequate viewers. ?My hall could accommodate 1000 viewers, but I was getting not more than 150 to 175 viewers in a show. Naturally, it was becoming difficult for me to run the business and I was forced to close down my hall?, said Subodh Roychowdhury, owner of Malancha cinema in south Calcutta. Roychowdhury also said he was planning to rent a portion of his hall out to any nationalised bank in order to earn some money.

The EIMPA feels that large scale piracy of hit Hindi films by some unscrupulous traders were responsible for closure of so many cinema halls. ?In Calcutta any popular and hit Hindi film releases on Friday. The cinema halls releasing the film get enough viewers till Monday. But after Monday, pirated CDs become available in the market in huge numbers and viewers refuse to take the trouble of going to the halls. Instead, they prefer watching the film on television or computer by using the pirated CD,? said Tapandeb Banerjee, chairman of the EIMPA?s exhibitor?s section.

Another reason responsible for financial losses by the cinema halls are cable TV operators. ?Hundreds of channels are screening various popular films everyday and every moment. Naturally, the viewers get chances in seeing popular films at home and many of them don?t take the trouble of visiting the halls, Dutta said.

?In fact we have drafted a survival strategy for the owners of closed cinema halls in Calcutta. We will soon finalise it and submit the same to the state government for its approval. Once it is approved, we think, the owners of closed halls in Calcutta will breathe a sigh of relief,? said Banerjee.