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The movie theaters in Kerala, which were shut for around ten months owing to Covid restrictions opened on Wednesday.
Over 500 of the total 670 theaters opened to the public. South Indian Super star Vijay's movie, "Master", is the inaugural movie in all the theaters in the state. However in certain theaters, owing to projector equipment complaints, the show was put on hold. Apsara theater in Kozhikode cancelled the 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. shows owing to a projector complaints, thereby disappointing a huge number of fans who had gathered in the theater. Mohammed Koya, 34, an avid fan of Vijay while speaking to IANS over telephone from Kozhikode said, "We booked the tickets two days prior through an online portal and all the seats were full. However, Apsara theater let us down, two shows have been cancelled. They say they will refund the ticket charge, we don't want that. We want to watch the movie". Theaters in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram opened with all the shows being booked. However, owing to Covid protocol theaters have been allowed to admit only half the capacity. Every theater has put a gap of one seat and tied ribbon so as to not allow the people to sit in between two seats. Murugan, owner of a theater group in Thiruvananthapuram told IANS, "It's a great relief. Even though we may get only 25 per cent of the collection owing to distribution charges of the movies, we are happy that the government has allowed the theaters to open. It's a grand gala opening with Vijay movie 'Master'. This makes us doubly happy and all the shows are booked for the next one week." In Palakkad district which borders Tamil Nadu, the movie opened with fans showering huge cutouts of Vijay with flowers and even pouring milk on them. Subramanian Mani, a member of the Vijay fans club while speaking to IANS over telephone said, "Vijay is indeed a mega star. The movie will be super, we are about to enter the theater and there are no tickets even for fan club members for the next one week." Super stars of Malayalam movie industry, Mammootty, Mohanlal, Prithviraj have thanked the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for having allowed the theater's to function. With the theater's opening, there is a long list of movies to be screened in the days to come with Jayasurya starrer, "Vellam" to be screened in select theaters on January 22. --IANS str/dpb ( 423 Words) 2021-01-13-11:50:05 (IANS)
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