MUMBAI: In light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a nationwide lockdown had been announced a month ago. Thus, employees have been laid off, the unemployment rate is at an all-time high, and daily wage workers are suffering the repercussions of the recession. While it was recently reported that Gaiety Galaxy owners had to take a loan from the bank to pay the salaries to the workers. Apparently, Akshay Kumar came to their rescue and pledged to help them in every way possible. 

Apart from Gaiety, Maratha Mandir Cinema continues to remain one of the oldest cinema theatres in Mumbai. The iconic Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge has been running at Maratha Mandir for around 25 years now. With the lockdown announced, the owners had to face a setback with the movie not running for the first time in over two decades. Manoj Desai, the executive director of Maratha Mandir Cinema, revealed to a media portal that they have did face a setback but have applied for a bank overdraft to pay the salaries and wages of the workers working under them. 

'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,' he added. 

When asked if DDLJ will continue to screen post the lockdown is lifted given that normalcy will take time to return, Desai shared, 'We will sit with YRF Studios and discuss and how we will go about that once things get back to little normalcy.'

Credits: Pinkvilla