The desert state of Rajasthan is set top open cinemas again with the 50% occupancy limit in a weeks time after remaining shut for almost a year. They closed in early March 2020 and while the rest of the country saw cinemas opening from October onward Rajasthan remained shut. 

This will leave Jharkhand as the only state where cinemas remain shut but a decision there will come soon and maybe cinemas in Jharkhand can also open up in a week or two. The centre is allowing cinemas to operate with 100% occupancy from 1st Feb 2021 but both Rajasthan and Jharkhand will probably be 50% when they open up.

The 100% occupancy decision came from the central government a few days back but so far it is Gujarat and Tamil Nadu where this has been passed at a state level so these states can run with full occupancy. It is expected that Maharashtra which is the biggest state for Hindi films in terms of revenue will also allow and exhibitors are waiting for the official ruling.

It is likely that most of India will be running with 100% occupancy by the end of the month and by mid March it should be 100% occupancy all over. This will mean exactly one year where cinemas remained shut or ran with occupancy restrictions.

This will come as a relief to exhibitors but the real deal is the flow of releases. Radhe and Satyamev Jayate have announced Eid but that is still more than 3 months away and the hope is of Sooryavanshi coming in April which cuts that 3 month gap to 2 months. 

There have been Hindi releases over the last five months but most of these would have struggled to bring in the audiences in normal times so they have little chance in the covid era. The big hope is that Sooryavanshi releases in April and there is a good chance after exhibitors met the makers last week but you can only be sure when the official release date comes.