No sooner did the meeting with the home secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, get over this afternoon than WhatsApp messages started to fly all around. Almost every message predicted that cinemas would finally reopen in the first week of October. While the optimism of the industry people is admirable, the misinformation isn’t. The messages almost made it appear as if Mr. Bhalla had committed the date of reopening, which is not true.
According to those who attended the meeting from the industry side, the meeting went off very well. Mr. Bhalla gave a very patient ear to the case presented by the industry people for the reopening of cinemas. He then told the industry representatives that he would have to discuss the matter internally before a final decision could be taken. It may be mentioned here that except for the urgency to reopen cinemas, nothing else was discussed by the industry people. “The point of how much occupancy would be permitted by the government was not even raised,” said two persons who attended the virtual meeting. They added, “The agenda was just the reopening of cinemas, nothing more than that.”