mall owners and retailers have accepted there is a cost but it has to be done for public safety pani saidmultiplexes too are waiting in the wings it will be a staggered opening expectations are that malls would be allowed to open in august and multiplexes in september we will take anywhere up to 3045 days to streamline operations said udeep reddy mdceo mayajaal entertainment which owns indias largest 16screen multiplex with 3000 seats we were surprised when the state relaxed norms from july 6 but did not allow malls to reopen movie theatres were the first to close and will be the last to reopen he saidhow did you predict that theres going to be a pandemic and malls and cinema halls would remain closed for long is the question that abirami s ramanathan who owned abirami mega mall is forced to answer these days to redevelop his mega mall he had shut it down and the building pulled down by september 2019 after approvals when we were about to begin construction the lockdown happened when norms are relaxed we are facing labour shortage ramanathan saidleading distributor exhibitor and multiplex operator tirupur k subramanian puts it simply no one knows when the cinema halls will reopen and when trade will pick up normalcy will return only when people start moving around without masks he pegs the losses to the nearly 1000 cinema screens in the state at rs300 crorers500 crore so far due to the lockdown