Mumbai: May 1, 2008 - It's not looking like a happy summer vacation for many of Mumbai's cinema halls.

Stung by the notice to shut temporarily for failing to screen Marathi films, cinema halls in Mumbai are determined to fight it out for what they say is nothing but a flop formula.

As a punishment for failing to screen Marathi films, 34 prominent cinema halls in Mumbai have been told to shut for a period ranging from a day to a week.

Cinema halls say that screening Marathi films for even four weeks a year will run up huge losses.

Owners of cinema halls and multiplexes say that mixing Marathi and commercial cinema is a flop formula.

Probably that is the reason why distributors of Marathi films distribute tickets free of cost just to draw in the audiences.

Perhaps nothing sums up the dilemma more than the recent closure of Bharat Mata, the only cinema hall in Mumbai that screened Marathi films exclusively.

On the other hand, Marathi cinema artistes say that if multiplexes offer a platform for their movies, the genre will pick up.