The Maharashtra State Government in its Monsoon Session at Nagpur said that it is in favor of allowing food and drinks to be consumed inside the multiplexes. This has garnered mixed reactions from the citizens, who are questioning the practicality of the decision. The announcement on Friday the 13th could indeed mean a nightmare for cinema patrons.

Roopali Suri:

Preventions, restrictions, and bans have always been counterproductive and there is never a foolproof mechanism. Allowing food also doesn't mean that people would be going for a picnic outing at a theatre. It's not about Mumbai or Maharashtra, but the country at large.

Hypothetical situations can suggest all these as a possibility, the same can be said about food hawked by the theatres- today in a multiplex you can buy all kind of food. It's not that they sell odor free, oil-free food that the same apprehensions can be valid.

Allowing outside food is merely an option and not to have a restricted monopolized system where you are compelled to buy food from inside the theatre complex at exorbitant rates. The solution is then to ban the sale of food inside theaters except for aerated drinks, juices, tea /coffee, water but at MRPs as a service rather than a profit-making business

That's quite a bold and smart move from the government. Not sure on how the exhibitors will think of this as F&B is there core revenue these days. But this move will definitely encourage cinema-goers to go and catch up on more films as they save more on food. Overall a good move for viewers and fans! Even ticket prices can be worked for more volume business.

Yuvraj:

Yes breaking the law is a mental apathy that we all deal with. Men here do take pride and childish courage in such things. Yes, alcohol can be rooted in and will cause problems. This is certainly a double-edged situation which could backfire! In India, only firm law and order work. But I hope cinemas are well prepared for this kind of situation and mainly man management.

The other things that can cause a problem are if people bring high quantities and badly arranged packing this could lead to a big issue with trash disposal. There should be some trial runs before all this comes in place! civic sense is not the best here. Exhibitors should reduce food prices too. At the moment they will be concerned.

Food odor will be a serious issue as people will bring all sorts of food. This could cause discomfort and problems even unwanted situations. But if it increases cinema business and is a well-planned scenario this could be a good move in general.

Bijay Anand:

Yes, it's going to be a huge concern and I think its 100% guaranteed that there will be anti-social elements coming in a big group of 5,10 or 20 who will get drinks in which there will be hard liquor mixed in innocuous-looking soda cans and they are going to drink inside theatres.

Once inebriated, they will create a ruckus and mayhem will follow.

Drinks laced with alcohol in the cinemas will now become a reality, I am very sure of that.

When we had to buy expensive foodstuff from the food hall inside the Cineplex there was a limit to what people would order and there was a limit to what people would eat and now if we allow foods from outside from coming in you will have people carrying their dabbas and God know what's going to be in those dabbas and how long they will eat and how much they will eat and what it will smell like so the other issues also yes, the noise and the nuisance value is going to be a big headache for sure.

As much as I love my country and am proud to be an Indian, it's a fact that even the higher strata of society do not have much of the civic sense so when we are allowed to carry whatever we want inside its going to be issue with people spilling that curry or gravy on the seat and messing it up making it dirty and its not going to be nice.

I think that overall the decision to allow the food inside the multiplex is a bad one because it also takes away the profitability of multiplex owners. If the multiplex owner is not making enough profit he's going to either shut it down or new ones will not open.

So I think the way things were, we were much better off with the limited good quality and quantity of food that we were getting inside even it was expensive. All in all, I definitely don't think it's a good idea.