The magic of watching a movie in a dark theatre is forever lost in many Indian towns which have gone from single screen to no screen. Avijit Ghosh travels to Batala to find out how Fridays became so dull
Avijit Ghosh (THE TIMES OF INDIA; February 18, 2018)

Every frame in journalist Rakesh Rekhi’s memory of youth is about Krishna Talkies. It didn’t matter that the visuals were hazy. That the sound was so muffled that he and others in the audience had to guess the dialogues. That the fans seemed to move in a drunken stupor, often forcing the gatekeepers to open the doors in late-night summer shows to let the cool air in. Krishna Talkies was his theatre of dreams, and Rekhi would save every five paise so that he could buy the cheapest 85-paise, front-row ticket. And sometimes, he would plead with the ushers to allow him to watch a movie in two halves over two days to avoid arousing suspicion back home. “I braved a police lathicharge to watch Dharmendra’s superhit Ankhen (1968),” says Rekhi, now 57.

That was then. Krishna Talkies, which came up before Independence, is history. Along with Rose Cinema, Krishna Talkies called it curtains in 2004-05. For the past decade and a half, this Punjab town has had no theatre.

Batala isn’t really an isolated case. According to industry estimates, India had 11,000-12,000 cinema halls in the late 1980s. By December 2017, the numbers had dipped to less than 5,000 single-screen theatres, partly compensated by the advent of more than 3,000 multiplex screens.

For Batala’s theatres, the hard times began in the early 1980s when pirated video cassettes began luring family audiences away. The rise of insurgency in Punjab made it worse. Krishna Swarup, its former co-owner, recalls: “During 1983-84, militants twice tried to set fire to Krishna Talkies. A desi bomb was also hurled once. People became too scared to visit theatres.”

With the state government imposing a fixed high entertainment tax, losses mounted. “It was difficult to pay salaries to the staff,” Swarup adds. Blockbusters such as Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Border ran for months in the 1990s but those were the last high notes. For a few years, the theatres survived on a diet of “sex movies” before the end credits rolled.

Thanks to satellite TV, pirated CDs, and streaming sites, viewers have many more options today. But everyone admits that nothing quite equals the experience of watching a movie in the darkness of a theatre — where belly buttons always had silver dust, and fantasy overwhelmed reality. For the tea-stall boys, rickshawpullers and daily wagers, it was the only escape from the ordinariness of life. As Santokh Singh, a resident of Kotli Bhan Singh village nearby, says succinctly, “TV majboori hai.”

A generation of boys and girls in Batala and its surrounding villages has grown up without going to the movies. Shopkeeper Deepak Mahajan did travel once with his wife to Amritsar, about 35km away, to watch the Punjabi hit Channa Mereya. But such occasions are rare as they cost money — for toll, petrol, multiplex ticket, lunch — and require planning. “We spent more than Rs 1,000, while a trip to the local theatre would have cost less than Rs 200 for the entire family,” says Mahajan.

The absence of a movie theatre is particularly hard for those who can’t afford smartphones. For some undergraduate students at R R Bawa DAV girls’ college, going to Amritsar for a movie is a once-a-year kind of thing. One of them said she borrows her brother’s smartphone to watch movies. A couple of years ago, the college treated the girls to the Sonam Kapoor starrer, Neerja. But they miss having a local theatre. “Television has only increased our appetite for movies,” says Anureet Kaur, a student.

It’s not going to change anytime soon. No theatres or multiplexes are coming up in Batala. Krishna Talkies, located in the heart of the town, was bought by a local businessman, Harvinder Singh. “The area wasn’t enough to construct a miniplex,” he says. Part of Krishna’s compound has morphed into a food street where hawkers peddle dosa, chowmein, momos, tikki and burger. The Rose complex is overrun with wild undergrowth and dying trees. Barring the fading letters, R and S in iron, there is no evidence of its cinematic past.

What survives are memories. Singh talks about the time he could hear a film’s dialogues from his roof. Rekhi remembers the time the Punjabi classic Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai, starring Prithviraj Kapoor and Vimi, celebrated a silver jubilee, and people thronged from villages to watch the mythological blockbuster Jai Santoshi Maa.

Raj Kumar, who worked for nearly 30 years as an usher in Rose, says the theatre staff were like celebrities because knowing them meant access to tickets for the first day, first show. “Even a gatekeeper like me was in demand. They used to refer to me respectfully as paaji (elder brother),” says Kumar. After the theatre shut down, he was unemployed for months. Now, he sells eggs for a living.

This day has seen the release of some huge hit films. It is coincidence but August 8th has been a very lucky day for films at the box office over the last 20 years. There could be other big releases earlier but our database is not picking them up yet. The list of films that have been released on August 8th in the last 20 years are as follows. They are listed in their inflation adjusted gross.

BLOCKBUSTER
1. Chennai Express (2013) - 2,33,65,24,740
The biggest blockbuster of Shah Rukh Khan in the last fifteen years. The film released on Eid 2013 and became the highest grossing film ever beating the record of 3 IDIOTS. The film more than doubled the previous highest Shah Rukh Khan opening.

SUPER HIT
2. Pardes (1997) - 1,89,63,94,500
The Subhash Ghai directed love story was a slow starter barring a few big cities but picked up well in the later weeks to emerge a huge hit. The opening day was just 61 lakhs nett which was 50% of a big opener like BORDER released a few months back. It also benefited from tax exemption in Maharashtra

3. Koi Mil Gaya (2003) - 1,79,97,91,840
The film which established Hrithik Roshan as a major star after a poor period. The film opened at 2.25 crore nett on day one which was the second highest opening of the time and there was no looking back as the film did well across the board.

4. Singh Is Kinng (2008) - 1,29,92,73,360
The film still remains the only Akshay Kumar film to set an opening day record although WELCOME (2007) would also be there if there was not issues with the release. The film set an All Time Record in East Punjab by becoming the highest nett grosser beating GADAR but the share and gross figures remained lower than Gadar.

HIT
-

SEMI HIT
-

AVERAGE
-

BELOW AVERAGE
Entertainment (2014) - 76,48,55,960
The Akshay Kumar starrer did not open well which hit its chances. The collections were okay after the first week but remained a poor performer. The film scored big on television picking up the second highest rating in 2014 ahead of the likes of DHOOM 3 and KICK

FLOP
Gangs Of Wasseypur 2 (2012) - 26,98,02,060
The film is a second part of GANGS OF WASSEYPUR which was a poor performer a few months earlier. The first film was said to have gained appreciation but the initial of this one which was even lower that the first one put that fake theory out of the window. If only we had second parts of all these so called appreciated films it would help the truth come out.

Dadagiri (1997) - 26,85,98,000
A Mithun Starrer which was released at a time when the best days were over for the dancing star.

DISASTER
Basti - 2,14,87,840
A low budget film featuring Aamir Khan's brother Faisal Khan. The film had no chance at the box office.