The government has been urged to rescue the local film industry and safeguard stakeholders’ interests, consult them to help maintain the industry for present and future generations.
They claim that the film industry has been ignored completely in post-COVID recovery, look in to reopen cinemas with rapid national vaccination program and take action to increase in occupancy rate to at least 50% post-restrictions
The film industry yesterday said COVID-19 and travel restrictions had put several cinemas out of business, prompting fresh calls for help.
“There are a number of small and medium-scale cinemas countrywide that have gone bankrupt. Most of them are unable to maintain their business with no operations to pay rents and salaries,” film industry sources said.
Sri Lanka National Film Corporation (NFC) has now become a liability to the modern local cinema due to malpractices, irregularities and inefficiency since its inception in 1971, industry stakeholders complained.
They demanded the government to maintain this corporation as a regulator of the Cinema Industry stripping of its additional role as a film distributor and film hall owner as its bureaucratic bungling has prevented the development of the industry for over three decades.
The need of the hour is to fully liberalise the distribution and import of films and allow cinemas to operate without any undue influences, they said.
Leave your comments
Login to post a comment
Post comment as a guest