The Travails of Hindi Cinema: Part 1

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Director-choreographer Farah Khan: Uncanny Visionary who predicted Hindi cinema business’ downfall in 2004 Photo: Publicity Photo

The Hindi film, as we have known it for decades, is sinking. In a morass created by short-sighted forces that have not ever been open to a reality check. The success rate of 60 percent plus (of releases) in the 1970s and earlier has gone down to single digits.

The decline began slowly but surely in the millennium and burgeoned in second decade. A multifarious octopus of circumstances and motivations started devouring what was Indian people’s prime entertainment lifeline along with cricket. I will begin to enumerate the causes as they come to mind.

Multiplex rates

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At the outset, let us strike at the biggest cause: the admission rates at multiplexes. Add the F&B rates (which are monstrous as a popcorn ‘tub’ can cost Rs. 450 upwards and smaller compact sizes are usually not given) and you have a fatal strike at the quantum of film watching populace, something to which a sizeable chunk of the population across demographics was used to, at least once a week.

With eerie prophetic foresight, director-choreographer Farah Khan, who in 2004 was the only female director to make a hit film (Main Hoon Na), had foretold before her “massy” film’s release, “Mark my words, Rajiv, the multiplex is going to destroy Hindi cinema!” And at that point of time, the movie hub that Mumbai was hardly had a couple of ‘plexes (though refurbished old theatres had come up with inflated admission rates and ‘plex facilities).

In 2005, at a film event in a Mumbai five-star, a noted exhibitor-filmmaker who shall go unnamed told me, “Cinema will no longer be affordable to the middle- and lower-classes.” I asked, “Then what will they watch?” He replied indifferently, “They will have to make do with television serials!”

So easily said!

From the 1980s, cinema had battled video piracy and the market of videocassettes and DVDs and emerged scarred but decidedly triumphant overall. But the ‘plexes in their greed for Mammon, continued to flaunt their supremacy with callous relentlessness. Yes, they did have technical (audiovisual) superiority, comfortable seats and cleaner toilets, but when a family of four (with children of any age) wanted to watch any film, they had to shell out the moon!

I remember watching a Hollywood movie at a late-night show by paying Rs. 180 (about three years ago). The movie was over 150 minutes long and in the interval point (which came past midnight) I naturally wanted to have coffee to stay fresh. The cost? Rs. 350!! Back in the days when a single-screen movie ticket was even as “high”(!!) as Rs. 25, the coffee would not cost more than Rs. 5! The same proportionate rates went for the other eats and beverages.

I recall watching Mujhse Dosti Karogi! (2002) with my family and shelling out Rs 60 for four tickets at a single-screen. Four big popcorns cost an additional Rs. 40, with the merchant adding a spoonful over and above the cardboard packet so that it almost spilled over in his machine. We had wished to watch the film at a new multiplex-like theatre just 1.5 kilometers away before we came here. And we would have paid Rs. 200 for only the four tickets there!

The ’plexes are even encouraged (!) by the governments with a tax-free holiday of three or five years initially. The single-screens, on the other hand, have to pay killing taxes all along. As the percentage of hit films crumbled, many even shut shop. The ‘plexes raged on, varying their rates as per the show timings, the weekends and holidays, and of course, the level of (and final fate of) a movie. Thus, one could watch an older film for Rs 150 at the same time as a newer film at Rs. 350 in identical neighboring screens in the same ‘plex!

Consumer-caused box-office famine

And so, cinema-watching became out of reach for the people who believed in the big-screen. The household pay packets did not match. Most ‘plexes were also located in malls with food courts and the expense per film could go into high four figures if we included those temptations as well! One parking lot even charges Rs. 120 today, and those charges go up on weekends!!

And yet, through all this lust for Mammon and utter disdain for the consumer, the decision makers just will not change. Kamal Gianchandani, president of the Multiplex Association of India, told bollywoodhungama.com last year, “At PVR-INOX, our average ticket price is Rs. 260, which I think is a very reasonable and affordable amount considering the quality concept of pricing. (!!) People are willing to spend (Oh, yeah?), and there is no resistance to a good quality film. About F&B, we have had no data or signals from consumers, and we have the same ratio of people who come in and those among them who spend on F&B that was there pre-COVID. If we notice something negative, we will act accordingly.”

Now that remains the major ostrich mentality possible! When the cost of steamed momos in a ‘plex went up from Rs 80 to Rs 120 in a week, I asked the man at the stall why there was such a sharp increase of 50 percent. He ruefully replied, “Sir, the theater management wants a larger share of our sales! We had no choice!”

Movie-watching luxury at an Indian multiplex. Photo: Publicity Photo

To part-mitigate this racket, the ‘plexes even have a “Cinema Lovers’ Day” when tickets all over the country at priced at Rs. 99! The premium classes on that day, of course, continue to loot…er, I mean…charge consumers anything from Rs 1000 up! Many screens witness better occupancy—only on that day! So when Mr. Gianchandani was asked why a “Cinema Lovers’ Week” was not held instead, he came up with a unique and weird answer: “I really feel here is that less is more, for with too much offers, the FOMO factor will be removed!”

!!! Really??? And from which planet have you sent this view?

And so, the cinema watching experience has gone down sharply, especially since almost all movies can be watched within eight weeks on OTT! As someone remarked, “If a ticket for DDLJ wasn’t available, one could move to another nearby theatre and watch another movie, even one which wasn’t good or successful, at an affordable price, because tickets were equally priced. But that era has gone! We can no longer watching aise-vaise (mediocre) movies simply because we must watch one on that day!”

In the next installment, I will highlight the change in viewers towards how they look at movies now!