Two days back, the Tamil Nadu Government increased the theatres occupancy from 50% to 100%. The move came a week after actor Vijay and the team of the upcoming film Master met with the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami expressing requesting to increase seating capacity.
After the announcement was made, a doctor from Puducherry penned a note to actors Vijay and Simbu expressing his concern over increasing the seat capacity in cinema halls amidst the pandemic. Dr. Aravinth Srinivas, a junior resident at JIPMER, Puducherry as per his Facebook bio wrote an open letter on the peril of opening the theatres to full capacity.
“Dear Vijay sir, Silambarasan sir and the respected Tamil Nadu government. I am tired. We are all tired. Thousands of doctors like me are tired. Health care workers are tired. Police officials are tired. Sanitary workers are tired. We have worked so hard at the ground level to make sure the damage done is kept to as low as possible amidst an unprecedented pandemic. I am not glorifying our work for I know there is nothing so great about it to the onlooker’s eyes. We don’t have cameras in front of us. We don’t do stunt sequences. We aren’t heroes. But we deserve some time to breathe. We don’t want to fall prey to someone’s selfishness and greed,” he wrote.
He added, “The pandemic isn’t over and we have people dying till today to the disease. A hundred percent theatre occupancy is a suicide attempt. Rather homicide, for none of the policy makers or the so called heroes are going to put themselves under the pump, to watch the movie amidst the crowd. This is a blatant barter system, trading lives for money. Can we please slowly try and concentrate on our lives and make sure we tide through this pandemic peacefully and not reignite the slowly burning out flame, that is still not completely put out? I wanted to make this post scientific and explain why we are still in danger. But that’s when I asked myself, “what’s the point?” Yours tiredly. A poor, tired resident doctor (sic).”
Meanwhile, Lokesh Kanagaraj directed Master is all set to hit the theatres on January 13. It will be the first major Indian film to hit the theatres since the pandemic. The film also stars Vijay Sethupathi, Malavika Mohanan, Andrea Jeremiah, Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, and Arjun Das.
