Drive-ins to come back?

In the western countries, drive-ins are pretty common. But in India, it never really took off, maybe lack of enough cars and then lack of space. Somehow, this idea did not find too many takers.

Drive-in is simply like driving into a theater, which is usually a large parking lot, and park your car. The parking lot will have a large screen in front of it. At the designated time, a movie will start playing on that screen and you can watch it from the comfort of your car. And once you’re done, you simply drive out.

There are drive-ins across some cities in India – Chennai, Ahmedabad, Vishakapatnam and Mumbai. Most of them are not working. But now these drive-ins are poised at the perfect opportunity. With social distancing here to stay for quite some time now, going to a regular movie theater might be a nightmare for most. And probably the best way to tackle this is by going in for drive-ins.

So is it possible that the theaters of the past might become the theaters of the future? Maybe  drive-ins will become a way for people to safely get out of the house while still practicing social distancing. But at the same time, the common facilities, like the drive-in restaurants and toilets could pose a problem.

The likes of PVR and Inox are sure to look into this facet because opening of theaters is on the least priority while people might feel the need to “get out” and do something which was normal in the Before Corona era.

Indeed life in After Corona times is going to be very different and we might actually see more things of the olden times coming back in vogue.