Two prominent cinemas in Calcutta, one in the north and the other in the south, temporarily shut this week, apparently due to a lack of enough Bengali films to screen.

Priya, almost synonymous with Deshapriya Park, and Binodini, formerly the legendary Star Theatre in Hatibagan, will both reopen on Friday. However, the brief closure, which does not happen often, points to a larger problem in the Bengali film industry — the dearth of films.

Every cinema screen in Bengal, including those in multiplexes, is required to show at least one Bengali film between 3pm and 9pm, considered “prime time” in entertainment parlance.

The state government issued a notice regarding this on August 13 last year. The move followed a letter from some leading figures in Tollygunge to the chief minister, alleging discrimination in the allotment of slots to Bengali films and saying most prime-time slots were being given to big-budget Hindi films.

But many exhibitors and distributors said there weren’t enough Bengali films to screen.

“The closure is temporary. But the problem is serious. The occupancy is low. My daily income is less than ₹10,000 from ticket sales, but my overhead expenses are much higher,” said Arijit Dutta, managing director of Priya Cinema.

“I cannot keep mounting losses. The temporary closure was a decision based solely on business viability,” said Dutta. Priya cinema has been shut since Wednesday.

Joydeep Mukherjee, owner of Binodini, said the theatre was closed for “maintenance work” since Tuesday, but also rued that Bengali films had become “festival centric”.

“There is a dearth of good Bengali content around the year. More Bengali films should come out,” he said.

Both cinemas will reopen on Friday. Dutta said he planned to screen Promoter Boudi and Kerala Story 2.

The Bengali film industry is limping, with the number of films produced annually shrinking. A section of filmmakers and actors has blamed the decline on the alleged high-handedness of a federation of technicians headed by an influential Trinamool leader. Many single-screen halls have shut down since the Covid pandemic, and the shortage of Bengali films is one of the main reasons, stakeholders said.

Piya Sengupta, president of the Eastern India Motion Picture Association and head of the committee preparing the Bengali film calendar, told Metro: “Big Bengali films, featuring big stars, cannot only be released during festivals. What will happen to single-screen theatres for the rest of the year then?”

Many distributors and exhibitors are banking on the Ranveer Singh starrer Dhurandhar 2, due for a March 19 release.

But Hindi films come with their own challenges, said hall owners, as studios insist that theatres screen only their film and no other Hindi release.