The Puja may have finally broken the invisible wall that came up between film buffs and theatres during the year and a half of the Covid onslaught.
Cinema halls, bleeding for a long time because of the pandemic, did brisk business in the festive season.
The latest 007 film, No Time To Die, drew people to theatres after a long gap.
But in terms of volume, a slew of Bengali films and the latest offering from the Marvel stable, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, were also top contributors, said hall owners and film distributors.
A lunch on Saptami, followed by a movie, used to be the norm for Saikat Mukherjee and his wife, Debjani, for many years. The Dum Dum residents were forced to stay home during the festivities last year as Mukherjee was down with Covid-19.
This year, the couple watched No Time to Die at a plex in south Calcutta. “Dan-iel Craig’s swansong seemed the perfect occasion to resume our bond with the big screen.”
Several hall and multiplexes registered housefull shows consistently during the Puja days. The halls are still operating with a 50 per cent cap on visitors but even then, the footfall brought smiles back on the faces of owners and employees of the halls. “The collections over the past 10 days have been very encouraging,” said Navin Chokhani, the owner of Navina on Prince Anwar Shah Road.
Amitava Guha Thakurta, the regional director, east, INOX, said people of all ages visited the plexes to see James Bond in action.
“An iconic franchise provided the push that was needed to bring people back to the theatres,” he said.
Satadeep Saha, owner of Ajanta in Behala and film distributor, said Venom: Let There Be Carnage registered houseful shows consistently on all four days of the Puja.
“Watching movies on the big screen is back,” he said.
Arijit Dutta, the owner of Priya Cinema, said: “Watching movies at a theatre is a habit. The pandemic had disrupted the habit. But now, things are slowly falling back into place,” he said.