Will Lockdown Lead To Unhappy Ending Of Movies Theatres?

There has always been debate about whether the culture of cinema houses will die with the rise of digital platforms. But so far, we witnessed that the diversion of the audience to digital platforms hasn’t really affected their love for big screens and their craze to watch the first-day first show. But seems like this lockdown will lead to an unhappy ending of movie theatres. In India, movie theatres have been shut for about 2 months now. There were several big-budgeted films scheduled to release in theatres around this time. But coronavirus doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. And if that’s the case, movie theatres will be having a painful end. Even if the lockdown is lifted, we wonder how many of us will actually go and watch films in theatres when we have the option to stay safe inside our homes and watch the same content. How many of us will wonder about the health and hygiene of the person who sat in this theater seat before us? How many of us will trust that the theater has thoroughly sanitized the seats, counters, floors, etc., between shows? And that is why several filmmakers are not waiting for the lockdown to be lifted but are instead releasing their films on digital platforms. Recently, it was announced that Vidya Balan’s ‘Shakuntala Devi’ and Ayushmann Khurrana and Amitabh Bachchan’s film ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ will be released digitally. This has left the cinema chain owners miffed who expected that the film producers will wait until everything reopens. But we wonder if the trend of cinema halls will slowly die! What are your views about the same? Would you still want to watch films in cinema halls or will you prefer digital platforms? Do tell us in the comment section!