From screening reruns of old movies to converting their properties, how single-screen theatres survived the pandemic

As single screen theatres in the South struggle to survive the pandemic, they rely on old favourites — from Kamal Haasan’s ‘Kalaignan’ to Vijayakanth’s ‘Karimedu Karuvayan’ — that still draw crowds

When the Tamil Nadu Government passed a directive allowing theatres to function at full capacity ahead of the release of Vijay’s Master in January, the decision, which was later rebuked, was largely perceived as a signal for the return of normalcy by the Tamil Nadu Theatre Association, in a bid to revive lost business. Four months and a handful of releases later, it appears there has not been much of an improvement, now that the Tamil Nadu Government has rolled back to 50% capacity in new restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus. While the sharks (read: multiplexes) barely managed to surf through, it is the small fish (single-screens) that seemed to have suffered most of the onslaught.