Movie ticket sales in Delhi hit by Friday's fire

The sale of tickets in the capital's cinema halls registered a slump on Saturday, a day after the devastating blaze at a south Delhi theatre left at least 60 people dead and about 150 injured.

Cinegoers, especially those opting for balcony and dress circle tickets, showed a reluctance to step into theatres. The effect of the incident seemed to be most in south Delhi where people refused to buy balcony or dress circle tickets.

The manager of the Alankar theatre in the Lajpat Nagar area of south Delhi said ticket sales had dropped by 50 per cent on Saturday in comparision to the figures for the noon and matinee shows on Friday.

He said the lowest number of tickets were sold for the balcony which recorded merely 30 per cent occupancy. Similarly, the advance booking for the evening and night shows also registered a drop.

''We do not expect such a sudden fall for a movie like Virasat which is a hit and is only in its second week. It is the effect of the Uphaar incident,'' the manager said.

The manager of Savitri, another south Delhi cinema hall, said, ''There is a definite fall in the sale of tickets, varying from 40 to 20 per cent in the case of stalls and from 50 to 70 per cent in the case of balcony tickets."

''Such a sudden slump in the balcony tickets has never been registered as far as I remember,'' he said.