Multiplex Killed the Single-Screen Cinema-Goer

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The man who brought the multiplex to India says he misses the old days when everyone shared one, big, tattered screen.

The scourge of multi-screen theaters that have spread in the last decade has brought the middle-class back to movie theaters but has also hurt the industry, said entertainment entrepreneur Manmohan Shetty. Mr. Shetty opened India’s first multiplex in Mumbai in 2000 through his company Adlabs Films (which is now part of the Anil Ambani empire and renamed Reliance MediaWorks.)

The fancy, expensive new theaters and the movies on their screens have ignored the country’s biggest movie fans who happen to have small salaries, said Mr. Shetty.

“Multiplexes have killed the industry,” Mr. Shetty told India Real Time on the sidelines of an event during the International Indian Film Academy weekend in Colombo, Sri Lanka. “We shouldn’t have forgotten the people on the bottom.”

While the multiplexes have upgraded the movie watching experience in Indian cities, they have also made it more expensive and exclusive. Movie makers are now aiming their content increasingly at the middle-class movie-goer even though they represent only a minority of viewers in India.

Mr. Shetty points to box office receipts in southern Indian which has fewer multiplexes and more movies aimed squarely at the movie-mad masses. As much as three-fourths of all the movie revenues in India come from that area of the country, he said. “In South India they didn’t break the pattern,” he said.

Tamil actor Rajnikanth is still a superstar at 60. He rules the South and has mass appeal because his films are fun. In old, single-screen theaters in Chennai, the crowd sometimes gets up and dances when Rajnikanth’s name flashes on the screen, said Mani Shankar, a movie director and writer from Hyderabad.

“There are mass films and class films,” he said. “In the South they still make the mass films.”

One of the best selling western films ever in India was “2012.” It worked because it was dubbed into many local Indian languages and it was an easy-to-follow, exciting story.

Much of India cannot afford or appreciate the movies from the new Bollywood, which is trying to woo the middle class minority, Mr. Shankar said.

“The movies are not visceral enough, they are cerebral,” he said.

‘It’s the pictures that got small’

That fact that there is a serpentine queue at the box office of a multiplex at the crack of dawn on a Friday morning makes for a strong reiteration of Bangalore’s love of movies. The humongous lines were for the Shah Rukh Khan starrer My Name is Khan that has been consuming reams of newsprint and hours of airwaves. Despite the steep ticket prices, the display board showed “sold out” and “fast-filling” for the weekend.

As 21-year-old collegian Aparna Ashok said: “I don’t mind spending money to watch good films in multiplexes.”

It is not just the youth for whom multiplexes rock. For D. Ambika Nair (49), homemaker and mom to twins, the multiplex is a natural destination “when I am out with friends as we can shop, eat and watch a movie all in the same place.”

But there are limits to fan following. Given that ticket prices can buy a sizeable bag of rice and the enervating expedition of negotiating what appear to be permanent traffic snarls the city is plagued with, the Internet and DVDs come to the rescue of a section of movie buffs. While most movie lovers know nothing compares to the “complete” theatre experience, they also face party-poopers such as long queues, a big hole in the pocket, freeze-level ACs, irritating cellphones, etc.

Lowdown on downloads

So you have people like Krishnaveni Badikillaya (24) who download movies from the Net. “It is definitely more convenient for working professionals,” she says.

In our over-communicated world where glitzy promos try to outdo each other to grab eyeballs, the wide, wild world of the Internet offers a totally different perspective. It is thanks to the Internet that a small, intimate movie such as Paranormal Activity became the rage it did. The haunted-house mockumentary, directed by Oren Peli, eschewed big-screen must haves like super effects for a static camera but managed to scare people out of their wits - including director Steven Spielberg. The movie took on a life of its own on the Internet and by the time it was released in theatres early this year, most movie buffs had already watched it online and been suitably terrified.

The other trend nowadays is films coming out on the telly within weeks of their release. Movies like that super-expensive underwater disaster Blue was aired on television within a blink of the eye. Even Rajkumar Santoshi’s Ranbir Kapoor-Katrina Kaif starrer Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani was aired soon after its theatre release.

However, the adage of content being king rules and a good movie will always find takers in theatres. Most people echo 15-year-old Joshua Samuel, a Baldwin High School student, when he said: “I prefer to watch good films on the screen rather than on the telly.”

The cost factor is taken care of with selective viewing with most people going to the big screen once in two months. As Aparna said: “It depends… Avatar was released with many other good films such as Sherlock Holmes and 3 Idiots. So I ended up spending a lot of money. Otherwise, there are times when months go by without me spending on movie tickets.”

Weekend rates

Oddly enough, the theatre-going public grumbled about being parted with their money for a few hours to pay the deposit for the special glasses to watch James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi extravaganza Avatar. The pricey weekend rates also added to the mutterings.

“That has always been the case,” commented A. Premchand, movie buff and Paramount Pictures representative.

“When Cleopatra was released in 1965, there was the new 70 mm technology and the tickets were priced higher.”

Mr. Premchand says the tickets in the Swinging Sixties were priced between “80 paise and Rs. 2.50.” “I remember then an increase of 50 paise, which was a decided pinch on the pocket. I had to beg for money from my grandmother to watch Cleopatra,” she said.

While Avatar has the world in a tizzy with its 3D effects, Mr. Premchand remembers watching the 1950s horror classic House of Wax. “I watched it at the Imperial. There was no extra charge for the red and blue glasses which were secured round our heads with a rubberband. We watched the film and returned them at the gate,” he said.

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