Does the future lie in multiplexes?

Have multiplexes changed the quality of Hindi cinema, asks Saibal Chatterjee.

In about a year and a half from now, multiplexes, as we know them today, will be all of a decade old in India. But even as their numbers have increased exponentially since the first one of their kind, PVR Anupam in south Delhi’s Saket locality, began commercial operations, have these swanky multi-screen facilities had the desired effect on the overall quality of Hindi cinema?

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Well, for every independent-spirited Mr & Mrs Iyer, Raincoat, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi or Iqbal that has clicked in recent years as an indirect result of the multiplex boom, there have numerous films like Amu and Dansh that have proved to be no more than faint blips on the radar despite the fact that they had everything to enable to find their niche in the crowded marketplace.

Despite the advent of multiplexes, which have now also begun to infiltrate the tier-two cities of India in a big way after making their presence felt in the major metropolitan areas, the showbiz landscape is still dominated overwhelmingly by Bollywood potboilers churned out by the big banners. The reason is pretty obvious: the old, dilapidated single-screen cinemas may have begun to drop off the map, yet the exhibition business is still run on largely conventional lines.

When a big-ticket release, say from the Yashraj Films stable, comes along, the basic premise of a multiplex – offering as wide a choice as possible to patrons – is thrown out the window and the screens are flooded with a single star-studded film. So, if you happen to be somebody who is more interested in watching a film than the stars in them, you are forced to bide your time for the multiplex near you to offer you something more to your liking.

A still from Aparna Sen directed Mr and Mrs Iyer. As an exception, this low-budget film did well at the multiplexes. Despite the advent of multiplexes, the showbiz landscape is still dominated overwhelmingly by Bollywood potboilers churned out by the big banners.

Worse still, when a small film starts off slowly – which is inevitable given the absence of saleable stars in the cast – it isn’t given enough time to find its footing. It is usually out of the scene before the second week begins. One cannot miss the irony. Every 'small' film that has gone to become a big success in the past few years – bet it

Mr & Mrs Iyer, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Iqbal

or

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara

– has reaped the benefits of an extended run.

The multiplexes were expected to empower the audience, especially those who love their cinema to be more than just an evening of fun, give them the privilege of choice, and let them dive into the diversity that Indian cinema is capable of delivering. If that hasn’t happened in its entirety, the time has surely come for the multiplexes to reinvent themselves a bit.

That exercise has probably already got underway. The number of multiplexes around the country is projected to double from the current level of 70-odd to over 150 in the next couple of years. The availability of seats is expected to jump from under 100,000 to 160,000. Interestingly, not all the new multi-screen facilities that are under construction will be of the same kind. They can’t afford to be.

At the current juncture, the multiplex boom remains a fringe phenomenon owing to their exorbitant ticket prices, which, in turn, are necessitated by the high costs of construction in a metropolis. Moreover, low occupancy rates, especially on weekdays, are a major worry. That pushes up ticket prices to make the business viable. Today, even at 35 percent to 40 percent occupancy, a multiplex can survive. But can the masses survive the ticket price onslaught?

Building a multiplex in a smaller city costs only one-fourth of what it does in Delhi or Mumbai. It is therefore in the smaller cities that the multiplexes will, in the real sense, draw the masses into the incipient revolution. Then, and only then, will it get really rolling.

So, what does the future hold for the multiplex biz? The days of rundown movie theatres are well and truly over. It is now time for Indian filmmakers to move with the times and abandon their dog-eared ideas for good. Multiplexes were meant to cash in on the fragmentation of the audience. Now the multiplex business, too, needs to embrace genuine multiplicity by splitting into three principal categories.

That’s more a necessity than a mere option. The old but refurbished single-screen cinema will continue to proffer big-budget blockbusters, while high-end multiplexes will cater primarily to the discerning among India’s metropolitan moviegoers without really shutting out lovers of conventional entertainment. But much of the action in the next few years will be in the space provided by low-cost, no-frills multi-screen theatres, both in the metros and the small cities.

And that is when quality cinema that flourishes on the fringes today will move centrestage and grab a larger share of the pie. Can that be bad news for anybody?