Movie theatres will reopen in Maharashtra from October 22 after being shut for close to six months, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Saturday. The decision follows an announcement on Friday to reopen schools and places of worship on October 4 and October 7, respectively.

The announcement comes as a shot in the arm for the nearly 1,000 single screen cinemas and multiplexes across the state. Theatres in Maharashtra were shut following the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020. They reopened in December and were shut once again over fears of a second wave in March this year. In everywhere else in India barring Kerala, cinemas have resumed operations at half capacity.

Maharashtra is one of the most important sectors for theatrical distribution. The state contributes an estimated 30% to a movie’s box office. The few Hindi films that were released in cinemas despite the loss of this market – BellBottom, Chehre, Thalaivii – took a hit in their earnings.

Thackeray’s announcement came after a meeting on Saturday in Mumbai with a delegation comprising filmmaker Rohit Shetty (whose Sooryavanshi has been stuck in the cans since 2020), Pen Studios head Jayantilal Gada and Pen Marudhar director Sanjay Chatar. The delegation included Kamal Gianchandani, President of the Multiplex Association of India and CEO of PVR Pictures, Alok Tandon, CEO of Inox Leisure, Devang Sampat, CEO of Cinepolis India and Kunal Sawhney, Chief Operating Officer, Carnival Cinemas.

Sooryanvanshi, starring Akshay Kumar, is likely to be one of the first releases. Also in the pipeline are Kabir Khan’s 83, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi, starring Alia Bhatt, and the Ranbir Kapoor-led Shamshera.

The last time theatres in Maharashtra were shut for this long was in 2009. A spat between producers and multiplex chains over how the box office pie was to be split resulted in a boycott on releases. The standoff dragged on for nearly three months. Filmmakers held back productions and relented only when new revenue-sharing terms were set.

This crisis was longer than the one in 1986, when the Hindi film industry, in a rare show of solidarity, went on strike to protest what they termed usurious taxation policies by the Maharashtra government. Among the film industry’s demands at the time was a lowering of entertainment tax on movie tickets.