The cinema halls in the Northeast will not open on Thursday as no guidelines in this regard have been provided by the states, even though the Centre has allowed film screenings. 


Movie buffs will have to wait a few more days to visit the theatres as official notices are yet to be released by the states in the region, Cinema Halls, distributors and content providers said. 


All the Northeastern states have commercial cinema halls, including multiplexes, except for Manipur. 


"Siddharth Goenka told PTI," We have not received any notification or confirmation from the government for the opening of the halls. Northeast's biggest film distributor, Goenka Enterprises We still haven't got any programmes from anywhere. 


The cinema halls will not open anywhere in the whole area on Thursday, he added, as per the information from the states. 


Even if the notification comes tomorrow for Friday 's opening, it will take a few more days for theatres to actually reopen, "Goenkaa said."


UFO Moviez India General Manager (Sales and Distribution) Sourav Dutta, the film content provider, said the company only received the order from the Centre, but nothing was received from the Assam government. 


So, even though 10-12 multiplexes are completely prepared to operate from Thursday, we have not given any film to any halls. However, as they observe the situation and public reaction, the single-screens will take several more days, ” he added. 


Simanta Saikia, the director of Carnival Cinema, also stated that they had not received any notification from the Assam government enabling the opening of the halls and that no film had been submitted by any content provider. 


It seems doubtful that on Thursday there will be any broadcast. We have, however, completed our method of cleaning and sanitisation. Since the theatres had been closed for nearly seven months, cleaning was an enormous job. We called nearly 80% of the workers for the preparatory work,' he added.


Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown caused by it, theatres across the country had to close their doors in March. 


The Ministry of Home Affairs, in its 'Unlock' guidelines released on September 30, permitted the reopening of cinema halls with up to 50 percent of their seating capacity from October 15, but left it to the states to take a final call for permission to be given.