Photos: Indian cinemas reopen after going dark for months amid virus

Employees wear protective masks to serve customers at food counters in the PVR Icon cinema at the DLF Promenade Mall in New Delhi. In movie-mad India, millions of filmgoers are excited as cinemas reopened after a seven-month-long, pandemic-induced halt. Its a step toward lifting the fortunes of the worlds most prolific film industry.

Every year, the $2.8 billion juggernaut produces more than 2,000 films that feature complex dance routines, singing and spectacularly large casts, serving to unite a diverse nation of 1.4 billion people. The industry's success over the years has embedded moviegoing into India's contemporary culture and been a boon for the economy, which, since the pandemic began, has nosedived to its slowest growth on record. But even if theaters are reopening, filmmaking still hasn't rebounded. Above, workers sanitize a hall in City Gold cinema after its reopening, amidst the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ahmedabad.

A movie goer gets his temperature checked at the entrance of a cinema theatre in Bangalore after cinema theatres reopened as the Covid-19 coronavirus imposed lockdown eases further in Bangalore. The films may be old, masks mandatory and the usual lavish menus absent, but Indian cinema-owners hope movie-lovers will still flock back on October 15 when theatres begin reopening after a nearly seven-month coronavirus shutdown.

Workers put up movie posters in a theatre in New Delhi. The return to movie theaters comes as India is registering the highest number of daily cases globally and is expected to soon top the list worldwide in terms of total number of reported infections, passing the United States. But trends also suggest the spread is beginning to slow.

Employees wear protective masks and face shields while standing at a food counter in the PVR Icon cinema at the DLF Promenade Mall in New Delhi. Nearly 10,000 theaters closed in mid-March when the government imposed restrictions to fight the virus, which has torn through India, killing more than 110,000 people. Cinemas are among the last public places to reopen _ a hugely symbolic move in a country known the world over for the lavish productions pumped out by its Bollywood film industry.

Seven months after screens went dark, cinemas reopened Thursday in much of India with mostly old titles on the marquee , a sign of the country's efforts to return to normal as the pace of coronavirus infections slows but also of the roadblocks that remain.

But even if theaters are reopening, filmmaking still hasn't rebounded. Reeling from zero box-office returns in this pandemic year, Indian filmmakers have so far not lined up any new big-ticket releases and have pushed any films they have made directly to online streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Such struggles can be seen the world over as the pandemic has devastated the entertainment industry. Earlier this month, a major American movie theater chain said it would temporarily shutter hundreds of locations in the U.S. and the U.K. Movie theaters pose some of the biggest infection risks since they put people in a closed space, where the virus can spread easily, for an extended period of time. Above, a worker cleans the seats in a cinema hall in Chennai.

To minimize the danger, Indian cinemas have separated seats, staggered show times and are encouraging digital payments. Masks and temperature checks are mandatory. Above, a worker sanitizes a film theater in the PVR Icon cinema at the DLF Promenade Mall in New Delhi.

Still, some Indian states have been cautious. Authorities in Mumbai, the home of Bollywood, put off reopening cinemas for the time being. The southern state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, is the worst-hit in India, with more nearly 37% of the country's COVID-19 fatalities. With few new films coming out of Bollywood, theaters on Thursday mostly re-released earlier hits, though one new film, ``Khaali Peeli,'' a typical Bollywood potboiler, came out.

The reopening of cinemas comes as trends suggest a decline in new infections. India saw a surge in July and added more than 2 million in August and another 3 million in September. But it is seeing a slower pace of coronavirus spread since mid-September, when the daily infections touched a record of 97,894. It is recording an average of just over 70,000 cases daily so far this month.

A worker pastes a social distancing marking sticker at the food court of a theatre hall in Mumbai.

A graphic designer paints a Bollywood movie poster on an aluminium sheet inside a workshop in Kolkata.