"I don't need to go to the hall to watch movies as I watch them at home," said Ferdous, a rickshawpuller, adding that he watches movies through cable TV and on VCDs.

Md Shahjada Mia, the manager of Padma and Surma cinema, which were established in 1988, said cinema once was only forms of entertainment but now it lost attraction.

Officials and staff of other cinemas said rampant sale of pirated VCDs, screening of newly released movies on DVD by cable TV operators and increasing vulgarism in local movies and their posters have made most viewers stay away from cinemas.

"The number of viewers have declined to a minimum," said Anwar Hossain, manager of about 40-year-old Jonaki cinema run by the Police Co-operative Society.

Anwar said only the lower class people like day labourers and rickshawpullers are now watch films at cinemas. Middle class and educated people hardly go to cinema.

About anti-social activities taking place in most of the cinemas, a supervisor of the same cinema said that a certain section of viewers come to the cinemas with ill intention. "If we see any such incident, we ask them to leave straightaway," he added.

The cinema staff said they fail to attract viewers despite the fact that ticket prices are still well within the commoners' capacity. The prices range between Tk 23 and Tk 40.

"Tickets at Surma cost less as it caters to the extreme lower class viewers who prefer obscenities in films," said a staff, adding that these viewers hardly go to Padma where usually good quality films are screened.

About security, most of the cinema staff said they have separate ticket counters for male and female and they use metal detectors to check the audience at the entrance.

Film producers are also worried about the decline in the number of viewers as they spend Tk 70 lakh to Tk 1.5 crore to make film.

The cinemas however witness some crowds when international film festivals are held although the tickets to such movies are comparatively expensive.

During the recently held film festival, popular Indian movies like Mujse shaadi karoge and Garv attracted lesser viewers in contrast to the local ones because these films are already available on pirated VCDs and cable TV channels.

About the obscene posters put in place around the cinemas, the cinema staffs said these posters are released by the film distributors with approval from the Film Censor Board. So the cinema owners have nothing to do with it.

Another common allegation against cinemas is that they often screen some uncensored part of films, which are known as "cut piece". A section of unscru-pulous filmmakers produce these cut pieces and supply them to cinemas. These are usually screened in the cinemas located outside the city, claimed the cinema staffs.

"They do it to attract viewers but such films are often seized by the police," said Shahjada Mia.

A local movie Takar nesha was being screened at Padma and Surma when this correspondent visited the cinema. The front seats were empty whereas the number of viewers in the back seats was scarce.

Some old cinemas like Moon and Lion have been shut down by their owners due to constant losses. The owners of Padma and Surma also intend to shut it down and lease it out to garment factory.

"On average two Bengali films are screened every week on the satellite Bengali channels so why would people bother to come to the cinemas to watch the same movies?" questioned a maintenance officer at Jonaki.