Hindi cinema, which has always been associated with blockbuster big budget movies is changing and lot of small movies are getting attention as well as making money. Movies like Bheja Fry, Khosla ka Ghosla and Life in a Metro would have disappeared like Kalabhavan Mani movies earlier, but now there is an audience for it.
While there are so many reasons for this change like financial liberalization which helps film makers get bank loans, the rise of new talent from the TV channels, and cinema hall de-regulation, it is the last point which can help small cinemas in Kerala too.
The final form of liberalisation that facilitated the film revolution was cinema hall deregulation. During the licence-permit raj, most states and cities placed stringent curbs on new cinema halls, which were assigned zero priority by central planners, who lavished funds on Doordarshan instead. Large bribes were required to get new licences. A typical licensed theatre had up to 1,000 seats. So, large audiences were needed to fill the halls, buttressing the search for big-budget, formula films. [How the reforms changed Bollywood]
In the towns of Kerala, most theaters are big and unless they get the theater completely full, they won’t be able to balance their books. Smaller theaters could cater to movies of Jayaraj and Shyamaprasad and movies like Ali Bhai could also move there after the first day hype. It seems like a win-win situation.
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September 21st, 2007 at 6:32 am
Hi
There is a typo in the title of this post
Please correct.
regards
Nikhil
September 21st, 2007 at 6:36 am
Nikhil, Thanks for pointing out the mistake.
September 23rd, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Multiplex and malls are the solution. With about 10 small halls they can run min 40 - 50 shows a day. Means 2/3 shows for ‘Ore Kadal’,'Pardesi’ and 10/15 for ‘Ali bhai’,'Nasrani’. One of the main reasons for the success of small scale bollywood movies has been this.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:17 am
Just curious: So, why hasn’t Kerala adopted this solution? Is it government red tape? A lack of investors with enough capital? Or something else? It sounds like an obvious and sensible solution. So there must be a reason why it hasn’t been adopted yet.
September 24th, 2007 at 6:13 am
Well, isn’t that obvious! As in the case of any investment, people must be scared to invest in Kerala.
September 24th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
An earlier report here itself mentioned about Paramount entering Kerala. Then there are malls coming up in Kochi, Kozhikode etc (Dont know how many of them have multiplexes).
Mainly financial constraints are making this slower. These are long term investments that will take years to give profits.
September 25th, 2007 at 4:38 am
WHen the whole of Kerala is under the rule of mafias,why leave Mallu filmdom?Nobdoy produces movies aimed at entertaining the audience,except a few.
Why blame the theatres for the debacle we are facing?
November 5th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Here’s some interesting news about Bollywood. Seems like they’re not the ones we need to be learning from:
http://sify.com/movies/bollywo.....d=14555572