Jorhat, Dec. 13: The ban imposed by militant outfits, including the Ulfa, on the screening of Hindi movies has taken its toll not only on movie halls in Upper Assam but also on cable operators.

Cable operators in all major towns of Upper Assam have stopped airing Hindi movies for nearly two weeks now.

“We have not received any threat from the Ulfa or any other militant outfit but we do not want to take any unnecessary risk,” a cable operator in Sivasagar said.

The proprietor of a local TV channel, Citi Cable, said his channel has been screening Bengali and English films for the last two weeks.

He said cable operators are already feeling the pinch for not airing Hindi movies since English and Bengali movies are not as popular as Hindi movies in Assam. “As such, we are receiving very few advertisements,” he said.

On the other hand, he said his TV network has had to do away with a lot of local programmes since it becomes difficult to cover local events with such few advertisements. Citi Channel has 25 employees, of which six are involved in covering local programmes on the lines of news channels.

The employees of the movie halls of Upper Assam are also feeling the pinch of the ban. Says Pradip Bora, an employee of Eley Hall here, one of the oldest movie halls in Upper Assam, “Yesterday we screened only one show. We had to do away with the evening show because only seven tickets were sold”.

Goneh Bharali, an employee of Smriti Gopal movie theatre said there are hardly any moviegoers since the ban. The theatre is at present screening a Bengali movie. “Since the ban, there are not more than 20 customers in one show. We are somehow surviving,” he said.

Out of the five movie halls in Jorhat, one has already closed down.