Multiplex, retail, shopping centre associations say their business was in recovery process and will be hit badly if second lockdown is imposed
Customers shop on the first day of reopening of Inorbit mall at Malad on August 5. Pic/Shadab Khan
Cinema, retail, and shopping industries won’t be able to bear another lockdown, industry associations said on Thursday, urging Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to not impose a lockdown in Maharashtra.
Multiplex Association of India (MAI), Retail Association of India (RAI), and Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI) said they were following all the safety protocols of the government but a lockdown will hit the business, which was in the recovery process.
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Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope recently said people should be ready for stringent measures in the coming days to curb the spread of COVID-19 and that imposing a lockdown is the last option for the state government.
‘Need to co-exist’
Kamal Gianchandani, CEO PVR Pictures and MAI president, said the cinema industry is mentally reconciled with the fact that they will have to “co-exist with the virus for some time”.
“There’s a sense of déjà vu for sure because we all have painful memories of the lockdown,” he told PTI in an interview. He said businesses should be permitted to function because that’s the only way for them to sustain.
“If we can’t function, the whole cycle comes to a stop and then we cannot sustain ourselves. So, if at all, they’re thinking of a second lockdown, we would urge them to reconsider their decision and take a much more long-term and pragmatic approach.
“Businesses, the economy and the virus have to co-exist. You can’t manage and contain one at the cost of the other. It’s not an either-or situation anymore. It has to be an ‘and’ situation,” he added.
Several films like “Haathi Mere Saathi” (Hindi version), “Bunty Aur Babli 2”, and “Chehre” that were up for release in March and April have been pulled by the makers from the calendar due to uncertainty amid the pandemic.
‘Would be knee-jerk reaction’
Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI, told PTI that a lockdown would be a non-analytical and knee-jerk reaction.
“Because it means we have given up hope that we can control the situation, that in the last one year, we have not learnt anything new. So, this is a really non-tenable situation and who can survive.
“If retail does not get money, then the suppliers do not get money and if suppliers do not get money, then the factories cannot operate. And if the factories do not operate, then it has an overall effect all across the system. The government does not get taxes and the employment will also go down,” Rajagopalan said.
Mukesh Kumar, chairman and director on board of the SCAI, said the industry is already suffering because of the previous decisions of the government like mandatory testing for the mall and reducing the timings.
“We are just recovering. We have reached almost 60 per cent of the footfall and 90 per cent of sales in March but then it started going downhill once the notification came about checking people coming to the mall and that they must have a negative RT PCR report... Then the second news came about reducing the timings, so these were all bad news.
“Let’s hope that this doesn’t happen because we will not be able to take another lockdown. Another shutdown will be discriminatory only for the malls, theatres and F&B,” Kumar told PTI.
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