Journalism of Courage
Festivals,cheaper tickets and combo meals these are some of the baits that multiplexes and cinema halls are offering to counter the CWC fever
Prakhar Joshi,head of programming,PVR,is currently busy planning movie festivals that their theatres can roll out across the country in the coming weeks. Something is better than nothing, says Joshi as he plots to keep footfalls at multiplexes unaffected by the Cricket World Cup season that continues till April 2.
With the ongoing league matches weaning away audiences,no new Bollywood releases have been scheduled till April 1. And the last major movie to release was Tanu Weds Manu on February 25.
As India progresses to the quarter-final,cricket is bound to emerge as the clear winner in this battle for eyeballs. Hence we are having various festivals,such as the Oscar Festival,where we showcased the Oscar-nominated films of this year. This was followed by the Harley Davidson Festival which screened biker films, says Joshi. After encouraging responses to these festivals,Joshi is now planning similar events. We are also showing the India-South Africa match on Saturday and all the following India matches at our theatres across India. The ticket prices,however,remain the same.
PVR isnt the only multiplex planning to counter cricket fever with festivals. Cinemax too is hosting a Movie Marathon. This month-long national film festival is spread over March. In its first week,Cinemax screened sci-fi movies while the second week,which is currently on,is dedicated to superstar Rajinikant and will feature his movies Robot,Sivaji-The Boss and others. The pan-India Regional Film Festival is coming up next. This will be held in four metro cities and will showcase a total of 28 movies in Marathi,Telugu,Malayalam and Bengali. The schedule features Pangira,Ideachi Kalpana,Magadheera,Maryada Ramanna,Mommy & Me and Pokkri Raja among others. This will offer audiences a chance to revisit the thrill of some of the most popular regional movies, says Girish S Wankhede,Deputy General Manager,Public Relation & Communication,Cinemax.
Officials at Big Cinemas claim its business as usual for them. In smaller cities,regional releases are drawing audiences while Oscar-winning movies are running in metros. The only difference is that we have introduced certain combo meals along with world cup merchandise, says an official. On Tuesday,they also offered free tickets for all movies to women across the country. That was just an initiative for Womens Day,our business is not really affected, he maintains.
However,amidst such brave fronts,a haording outside Regal cinema in Colaba has made it loud and clear that business is clearly suffering. While the dress circle rates have been brought down to R 100 for all films,the balcony seats are being sold at R 60.
But theatres and multiplexes in Kolkata too are facing a dull period. Our business is affected,but its all part of the game. Weekends are the busiest time for us and unfortunately,this year,most of the India matches have been scheduled on weekends. We might end up screening the finals in some of our properties,but that depends on whether India manages to reach the finals or not, says Tamal Ghosh,assistant manager,Priya Entertainment Ltd which owns Bioscope multiplex and Priya theatre in Kolkata.
Pune,however,is up for the challenge and is likely to witness multiple film festivals. While E-Square multiplex has a Marathi cinema festival coming up,Inox is capitalising on the combined star-power of Salman Khan,Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan by hosting Khan Festival in an attempt to increase their footfall. We are planning to screen four or five Marathi movies that,according to us,were the biggest hits of last year, says Suraj Sharma,manager of operations. Starting March 18,we will host the Marathi Dhamaal Week, he confirms.
(With inputs from Premankur Biswas and Kartikeya Ramanathan)
