Maratha Mandir is one of the oldest cinema halls of Mumbai. It is an epitome of legacy and history for Indian cinema. Shah Rukh Khan’s iconic Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge has been running at Maratha Mandir for around 25 years now.
However this is quite a tough time for them as well. As the coronavirus outbreak, PM Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown. While the theatre is also following the lockdown the Gaiety Galaxy owners had to take a loan from the bank to pay the salaries to the workers.
However, Akshay Kumar came to their rescue and pledged to help them in every way possible but the authorities refused it.
While talking to a daily Maratha Mandir Cinema executive director Manoj Desai said, “This is a difficult time for every one of us, not just us. We have applied for a bank overdraft to pay the workers for this month and let’s see what happens in the upcoming months given that people will take time to return to the cinema even after the lockdown is lifted. For multiplex owners, they have other businesses as well along with this but for people like us, we only have this. But, we are hopeful to be able to pull through.”
“Akshay Kumar had reached out to us to extend his hand if needed but honestly, we politely refused it because he is already doing so much. I am sure we will somehow pull this through,” Desai added.
DDLJ will continue even after the lockdown is a tough call. Desai shared, “We will sit with YRF Studios and discuss and how we will go about that once things get back to little normalcy.”
