Cinemas, theatres to reopen in Maha from Oct 22, Sooryavanshi to release on Diwali

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday announced that all cinemas and theatres in the state will reopen from Oct 22.The theaters in the state are closed since last 18 months in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. Soon after this news surfaced the makers of Multistarrer movie announced that Sooryavanshi will be released this Diwali.

“The work is underway to prepare a detailed SOP (standard operating procedure) in this regard, which will be announced soon,” he said after detailed discussions with the Covid Task Force members, including chief secretary Sitaram Kunte, additional chief secretary (Health) Dr Pradeep Vyas and Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut among others.

From the Bollywood and Marathi film industry, there were bigwigs like Rohit Shetty, Kunal Kapoor, Makrand Deshpande, Subodh Bhave, Aadesh Bandekar and other representatives from the stage and silver screen, fulfilling their long-standing demand.

The move came a day after the government permitted the reopening of most schools in the state from Oct 4 and all places of worship from Oct 7, with restrictions.

After a hiatus of 19 months, normal classes will resume in the state for students of classes 5 to 12 in rural areas, and from classes 8 to 12 in urban areas.Until now schools were conducting physical classes only in those areas which were reporting relatively fewer Covid-19 cases.

Physical classes would not resume yet for classes 1 to 7 in urban areas and classes 1 to 4 in rural areas.While, the reopening of the places of worship will coincide with the first day of Navratri, one of the major festivals in the country.