Kathmandu, February 25:

Before heading for a cinema hall to watch your favourite flick, you are advised to check out the load-shedding schedule. Reason: Cinema halls in the Kathmandu valley operate only when there is no load-shedding in their respective areas.

The eight-hour-a-day load-shedding and shortage of petroleum products has forced the owners of most of the cinema halls to cancel one or two shows during the load-shedding hours every day.

The shortage of petroleum products means that the owners of these halls cannot run the shows by using generators. There is no way except to cancel the shows during the load-shedding hours, said Basanta Manandhar, manager of the Jai Nepal Cinema and Kumari Cinema.

Since last week, the Jai Nepal Cinema has been forced to cancel at least one show every day, Manandhar, said adding, “This has created inconvenience to the movie-goers. Thanks to load-shedding, the number of movie-goers has halved.”

Kumari Cinema has also been unable to run its shows regularly. “The afternoon show was cancelled yesterday, there would be no evening show today.”

“Movie-goers feel bad when they have to return without watching the movies,” Manadhar said, adding, “We inform those, who do advanced booking through phone.”

The Gwarko-based Multiplex Guna Cinema is faring no better.

It runs eight cinemas when there is no load-shedding. Sambhu Sitaula, manager of the Guna Cinema, said the number of movie-goers has decreased by over 80 per cent. “As people are not sure whether they will get to watch the movies, most of the people have stopped visiting the cinema halls.”