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Landmarks: 'Multiplex'perience | Radio rocks!
Published on Tue, Aug 14, 2007 at 18:13, Updated at Wed, Aug 15, 2007 in 
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NOW SHOWING: Most visibly, the multiplexes have changed India’s urban landscape.
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July 1998. Scorching heat, buzzing flies, a getting-longer-by-the-minute queue at the ticket counter, one for guys and the other for girls. At the Rs 10, line behind the then-single-screened Priya Cinema at Vasant Lok in Delhi, it was a regular scenario.
College students, school kids and autorickshaw drivers were the main patrons. Some came to catch a specific movie, others lined up to catch any English flick with “gals and ektion”. Popcorn and Cola were pooled-in for and a certain burger-brand was still a novelty. A movie outing, when budgeted, came to about Rs 50-80 per person.
Circa 2007. The release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the queue outside PVR Priya complex was mostly young: young kids with elders, college students and a new breed of youngsters that has come up in the last decade, the Call Centre Kids. Most were walking advertisements for the latest apparel brands, the latest mobile phones, the latest bottled fragrances and would spend anything close to Rs 550 per head, including tickets, snacks and fuel or transport.
India is earning more, spending more and the multiplex mania is a glamourous example of how and where that money is being spent. Multiple screens have done more than just give us more movies to watch on a given weekend. It started with three-five screens in one cinema hall and is constantly snowballing; we now await the country’s biggest multiplex, which is set to have 11 screens.
Most visibly, the multiplexes have changed India’s urban landscape. Initially, encouraged by more footfalls, existing shopping complexes were souped-up to entice those coming for movies to come shop, browse and eat before the movie started; or after it. For new multiplexes that were conceived or are being thought of, entire malls were set up around the screens: The draw was the movies, the hope that the footfalls would translate into spending on the stores and eateries around. And the gamble has paid off.
Real estate and the film industry both benefiting. From a country of ‘silver jubilee’ movies and Jubilee Kumar, where the films ran for months and years; the shelf-life of a movie is a weekend long. And yet, filmmakers and multiplex owners are raking in the moolah and looking at further expansion. More screens translate into more movies, big, small and regional.
The ‘small budget’ movie phenomenon — milked most perhaps by the Bhatt camp — is a direct result of the multiplexes. While a Rs 20-crore movie cuts its losses and perhaps makes monies through ticket sales and minimum guarantees — the basic minimum cost at which distributors sell a movie to exhibitors/theatres — movies made on a budget of Rs 2-4 crore often yield profits.
Multiplexes have given that much-needed opportunity for newer, less-moneyed talent to come to the fore. And thanks to the many screens, you and I get to see some good regional cinema as well.
With an estimated growth of 44 per cent a year, the film industry is set to grow by more than $200 million by next year. In more tangible terms, that would mean anywhere near to 200 screens by the major players (PVR, Adlabs, Inox)… and those are in the major cities alone.
Sooner than later, plans are to expand to the grassroots and bring multiple screens to small towns as well.
What happens next? Hopefully, ticket prices come down, newer, better movie makers are encouraged and our film industry rocks the world in the next 60 years to come.
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