Labasa Cinema to Open in December
With the upcoming festive season, people in the Northern Division are expected to receive a jolly treat with Charan Singh’s twin cinema expected to open by December. Owned by Charan Jeath Singh Group, the cinema is expected to create about 50 employment opportunities.
The cinema is located on level three of the Charan Jeath Singh mall, on Naseakula Road, Labasa The three storey mall has a 12 retail outlet which is all been occupied, a food court, game centre, two theatres and half of the building have been occupied by the University of the South Pacific, Pacific Technical and Further Education (TAFE).
Charan Jeath Singh Limited director Charan Singh said more are expected to be employed by the company as they plan to extend into the cinema industry.
“The ground floor of the building, which has retail outlets, opened earlier this year and has created employment. For the theatre, there will be two cinemas which will have 100 seatings and the price of the ticket will be made reasonable for the people of Labasa,” Mr Singh said.
“We planned to have a cinema after we did a survey to see what recreational activities, people of the North are lacking in.
“We wanted to have facilities that are of overseas standard,” he said. Mr Singh said cinema is not a money making business, adding that the mall will have a lot of recreational activities.
He said screening of the movies will start at 10am.
“This will be the first cinema in the Northern Division, although Damodar City has planned to have a cinema in Labasa, eventually this project will be finished to three to four years time,” he said.
“In the building itself, the ground floor has 12 retail outlet which has all been occupied, eight restaurants.
“On the second floor which is a food court, it will have a sitting capacity of 200 people and is fully air conditioned.
“All the food court tenant has already booked in, we will have different cuisine- Fijian, Indian and Chinese with pizza and coffee,
“The food court is a similar and smaller version of MHCC in Suva. “On the third floor we will have two cinemas; each theatre will have a capacity of 100 seats.
“We will have a bucket seat which has been ordered from a company in China. “
“And the equipment, the projector, sound proof, curtains and all other necessary equipment are coming out of Australia- this is the same company that provided electronic equipment to Damodar Cinemas,” he said.
He said the new cinema will operated by Life Cinema.
“As we speak, we are having talks with Life Cinema to run the cinema, to have profit partnership. “Both cinemas will be showing the latest movie with one cinema showing Bollywood movies another Hollywood.
“The cinema will have a ticket booth, snacks corner and a nice liquor bar- so people could have a few drinks before and after they get in the theatre, we will also have games. I am sure when this theatre’s open; it will be a place to go to for the people of the North,” he said.
The total cost of the mall is $4. 5 million once completed.