Five days have passed since the night curfew timings were relaxed. Starting last Monday, 11pm to 5am has been the night curfew slot.

The Telegraph takes a stock of the city’s response to the relaxations.

Restaurants and bars

Diners outside Peter Cat on Park Street on Saturday evening

The dinner crowd is back at restaurants. The new closure time is 10.30pm. Most restaurants are allowing people in and taking last orders at 10pm compared to 8pm during the earlier curfew slot.

Around 10pm on Friday, scores of people waited outside old favourites on Park Street. Because of the 50 per cent cap, not all of them could enter for dinner.

“There is a big difference in footfall because of the night curfew relaxations. Indians do not feel hungry before 8-8.30pm. After such a long time, it is good to see people being able to come to dine at usual dinner time,” said Nitin Kothari, the owner of Mocambo and Peter Cat.

The 9pm to 5am curfew slot meant a rush for lunch. Gradually, people had adapted and restaurants were busy in the post-lunch period as well. Many people were opting for an early dinner.

Bar owners said the footfall was picking up gradually. The 9pm to midnight slot was extremely busy for pubs before the pandemic, especially on weekends. That rush is gone. But the owners pinned their hopes on further relaxations from next month.

“The 8pm deadline (during the 9pm to 5am night curfew) meant almost zero dinner business. That has changed. It is a much-needed relief,” said Gaurav Karnani, the owner of Grid, a microbrewery and pub in Topsia.

Malls

Malls were already back to being packed before the latest relaxations. An additional hour or 90 additional minutes has extended the rush.

“The footfall has risen by around 10 per cent. Around 50,000 people visited the mall on Saturday,” said Dip Biswas, the deputy general manager of South City mall.

The mall used to close for visitors at 8pm before the relaxations. Now, the closure time is 9pm. The food and beverage outlets close at 10.30pm.

“A week ago, people would drop in early evening because they knew of the early deadline. But now, that rush is getting evenly distributed,” said Biswas.

At Quest, a mall official said the “footfall has definitely gone up, though not like the pre-pandemic time”.

“We hope it will go up further now,” the official said.

In Salt Lake, City Centre I and II have also been registering a robust growth in footfall. “It is close to pre-pandemic times,” said Ramesh Pandey, the director of Ambuja Neotia group, the promoters of City Centre I and II.

Movie halls

People outside Navina Cinema on Friday. Biswarup Dutta

Bell Bottom, the first big Bollywood film to have released across halls in over two years, has breathed some life into the sector. Single screen halls registered three-figure ticket sales after a long time.

The reduced night curfew has allowed for an extra show at most places.

“Viewers are visible, after a long time,” said Arijit Dutta, the owner of Priya Cinema. The hall is running three shows with the Akshay Kumar starrer.

At Ajanta in Behala, there are two screens, each with a capacity of around 115 after the 50 per cent cap.

“Till last week, the number of viewers would be less than 50 at both combined. Now, over 150 people have been turning up every day,” said an official.

Satadeep Saha, who owns Ajanta and has distributed the film in Bengal, said in terms of occupancy, multiplexes were doing better.

“But there is at least something that everybody can look forward to,” he said.

“Footfall is on the rise every day. We are in a healthy situation,” said Amitava Guha Thakurta, the regional director east, INOX Leisure.