The big screen might be back to life after the pandemic-induced lull, but the business is yet to return to normalcy with Bollywood films failing to elicit expected response at the box office. And it is turning out to be a worrisome situation for cinema halls across India.

If we talk about this year, only a handful of projects from the Hindi film industry such as Pathaan, Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan and The Kerala Story have fared well at the box office. Lack of footfalls at the theatre is creating a loss scenario for the theatre owners. Recently, PVR INOX Ltd reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 333.99 crore for the fourth quarter that ended on March 31, 2023, revealing that they are planning to shut nearly 50 loss-making cinema screens in the next six months.

“At the moment, the biggest sufferers are not the producers or the distributors but the exhibitors. When films don’t work, the theatres are the first to be hit. The producer can take time and plan next films, and the distributors can take a decision to not release a few films for a certain period. But the exhibitors need to have one or two films every week. And the exhibition sector is bleeding at the moment, with many theatres closing down,” says trade expert Taran Adarsh, adding, “it is a very grave scenario at the moment”.

Some time back, a report by Ormax also stated that while Hindi is the most-watched language, with 5.8 crore audience, the Hindi theatre-going universe has shrunk by 21.5 percent from the pre-pandemic time. It also stated that India box office revenue crossed the Rs 10,000- crore mark, but footfalls remain lower than the pre-pandemic levels.

According to trade expert and producer Girish Johar, the first quarter of 2023-2024 was 30-35 per cent behind the 2018-2019 quarter. Expensive ticket price is one of the reasons behind the drop in footfalls,

Explaining the ticket business, trade expert Atul Mohan shares, “You can’t price Rs 600 for a ticket for Shah Rukh Khan film, and a small or medium budget film. The pricing system has to be different, especially when it is known that people are aware that the content will soon come to the OTT space. Cinema is a business of volume. Apne mehnga karke pehle hi disconnect kar diya hai.”

“The dynamics of the box office have completely changed. Much higher superiority quality of content is available at the push of a remote button. Now, venturing out to the cinema is for a larger experience. It has become an expensive proposition. The single outing for a family turns out to be over Rs 5000. And if the content is sub standard, you feel cheated. That is why only tentpole projects are working, and other projects are crashing from the first show itself,” he adds.

Here, Devang Sampat, CEO, Cinepolis, adds, “The first quarter was disappointing, apart from Pathaan and few south Indian tiles, nothing worked. We are not seeing this for the first time, and hope to be back to normal soon”.

Things might seem grim at the moment, but industry insiders are expected to pick up going forward with films such as Maidaan, Satyaprem Ki Katha, Adipurush and Jawan slated to release.

Breaking down the scenario, Gautam Dutta, Co-CEO, PVR INOX Ltd, shares, “The recent concerns are not significant, and should settle down in the near future. The Hindi cinema industry has always been resilient and has managed to bounce back from difficult periods in the past…We surely expect the Hindi cinema to make a comeback with new exciting releases in the coming months”.

Here, Raj Kumar Mehrotra, general manager at the Capital’s Delite Cinema, shuns the idea that it is a dark time for cinemas, because Hollywood films as well as South Indian titles are filling the gap.

“For instance, the third part of Guardians Of The Galaxy worked well, and the new instalment of Fast And Furious is also seeing good business with 85 percent occupancy. People want good content, no matter what language,” he says.

Director Anees Bazmee also feels it is wrong to blame Hindi films for the closure of cinema halls in India. “There are times when cinema halls don’t work at one point, but some other place. It can’t be blamed on the poor performance of Bollywood films in the theatre. Yes, pictures are not working because they are not good, and people are used to watching content on OTT. But it is not right to blame that cinema halls are closing because Hindi films are not working. There are many factors involved,” he ends.

Tenet: ₹15 crore

Wonder Woman 1984: ₹12.5 crore

Vinash Kaal — a Hindi horror flick whose poster shows a midriff-baring actress in a plunging neckline on the left and two lecherous villains on the right — is meant to be enjoyed ironically. But that’s not why Mumbai-based film archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur paid Rs 40 to watch it on the big screen in Bandra two weeks ago.

The film was part of his pilgrimage to single screens in Mumbai and Kolkata. “The movie doesn’t matter. I just want to show them my support,” says Dungarpur, who — with the ardency of a devotee thronging his shrine of choice — has been sitting in the seedy chairs of single screens, and clicking pictures of these ancient “temples of cinema” post-lockdown.

But the truth is that his celluloid temples that need much more than prayer to survive their Coronavirus-induced ‘The End’ in the wake of the film industry taking big releases directly to streaming sites and hygiene concerns shrinking footfalls further.

If many iconic theatres such as Galaxy, Shanti and Sri Rama in Hyderabad and Agastya, AVM Rajeswari and Maharani in Chennai have succumbed during the lockdown, former ushers of theatres such as Mumbai’s Edward Talkies — who once enjoyed greedy welcomes and free lunches at nearby restaurants — are now working as security guards.

In Kolkata, six cinemas — Priya, Menoka, Ajanta, Ashoka, Jaya and Basusree — reopened after lockdown only to close again on November 20. Others such as Navina have brought down the number of shows from four to two. Many are waiting for releases such as the promising Christopher Nolan film ‘Tenet’. While this big picture might rejuvenate a few theatres, the bigger picture for the country’s 6,000-plus single screens remains gloomy.

West Bengal, for instance, had 225 single screens before the pandemic but now, 70 cinemas haven’t reopened while 50 to 60 others are keen on selling off their property. According to Suranjan Paul, the owner of Minar, Bijoli and Chhabighar, many single screens were tanking even before the pandemic. “Those halls were not upgraded and the turnover was bad. The pandemic is a catalyst for them to snap ties with the movie business completely,” says Paul, who refuses to close his ageing screen even though it’s making a mere 20% of what it used to.

If 20 theatres on the T Nagar-Anna Salai stretch in Chennai perished to make way for malls and multiplexes between 1986 and 2006, Maharashtra has lost almost half of its 1,200 single screens to economics in the last two decades. Many of Mumbai’s Art Deco-inspired cinemas — Art Deco was the architectural norm for cinemas throughout India well into the ‘70s — are now on the verge of becoming grey relics from a technicolour time. “If we were to shut down permanently tomorrow, the government won’t blink an eyelid,” says a bitter Mrunalini Gole of Mumbai’s Liberty Cinema, whose rich Canadian Cedar-and-Burmateak-lined walls and Plaster of Paris detailing continue to pull many camera-toting Japanese architecture buffs. Once infamous as the “porn theatre of Bombay” until the 125-week running ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’ turned its fortunes around in 1994, Liberty Cinema is now waiting for Mumbai’s lifeline — local trains — to resume before it decides on a post-lockdown comeback.

Till then, memories must sustain the decrepit talkies. Sanjay Bendre, manager of Mumbai’s Edward Talkies — a three-tier wedding-cake-like cinema — recalls Edward’s “golden era” when 1974’s ‘Jai Santoshi Maa’ had a 48-week housefull run and tickets were so elusive that businessmen would bribe theatre workers with the same gifts with which they bribed deities: coconuts, blankets, tea-sets, garments, and free lunches. Today, the ushers have lost their jobs and films fill barely 20 of its 509 seats, with the audience comprising largely of college couples interested only in off-screen action. However, nostalgia still makes old-timers still drop in and ask: “Can I step inside just to have a look?”

What Tirupur M Subramaniam, president of the Tamil Nadu Theatre and Multiplex Association, remembers most about watching films at a single screen theatre is the “curtain man”. “There would be an embellished curtain in front of the white movie screen and minutes before the show was to begin, a man would sprint up to the curtain to open it. The entire theatre would begin whistling in anticipation of the movie beginning. It was almost as if he was the hero,” says Subramaniam. Sadly, it’s time to pull the curtains down. “A single screen is now an old elephant,” pronounces Bendre. “Neither fit for the circus nor for riding.”

Not everyone is giving up. Raj Kumar Mehrotra, general manager at Delhi’s Delite Cinema, says while occupancy has been very low, he is not disappointed. “The footfall is increasing with every film, every week,” he says. Plus, as blockbusters start opening, he’s sure the cinematic experience will prevail. “I am not talking about single-screen cinemas that have not upgraded or kept up with the times but those that give the audience good seats, air-conditioning and atmosphere at affordable ticket prices. Just look at Raj Mandir Cinema in Jaipur, one of the finest in the country. Their one screen makes the same collection as 6-8 screen multiplexes for some movies. The same happens at Delite too.”

Like Dungarpur, some viewers too are passionate about saving theatres. Kolkata-based actor Saptarshi Ray has formed an organisation called Pagoler Pathshala with 50 members to promote community viewing in theatres following all health protocols. “Whatever we have achieved is because of our work in movies and on stage. Now is the time for us to give a return gift to the industry that gave us our identities,” says Ray, whose team has collectively watched four movies and one play so far since October 21.

Additional reporting by Kamini Mathai and Ketaki Desai

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Even at the age of 91, Rabin Seth hops on to his bicycle and pedals 2 km from his Girish Park residence to Kolkata’s Chhabighar, the theatre he joined as a youth in 1952. Over the years, he became manager of the single-screen cinema established in 1930. Even though his salary is delivered to his residence after the cinema reopened, Seth still cycles to Chhabighar, just to check the turnout. “Cinema is my soul,” explains Seth, who feels that even if there are a handful of viewers, the lights shouldn’t be turned off. “Doing that is a body blow to the industry as well as the staff. Cinemas have fought the onslaught of television and video piracy. A little bit of patience is all we need to get back on track,” says the confident nonagenarian.

On Thursday, the Maharashtra government extended the Coronavirus lockdown in the state till November 30 with no further relaxations. For exhibitors in the state who have lost crores of rupees in the eight months of theatre shutdown, the move spells doom as Diwali is the most profitable period for business. Manoj Desai, executive director of G7 multiplex in Bandra, says, "Our business shoots up during this period, but it's a black Diwali this year. [On paper], I have eight theatres standing, but in reality, we are broke."

Akshaye Rathi, who owns cinemas in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, notes that the exhibition and distribution sector had earned Rs. 250 crore last Diwali owing to the three festival releases — Housefull 4, Saand Ki Aankh and Made In China. As another bleak month awaits him this year, he has no option but to let go of his staff. Rathi indicates that the discrimination against movie halls is unfair as he asks, "Are cinemas the only place where the virus spreads? Everything else has reopened — be it metros, salons, and even trains."

With trade and filmmakers optimistic that the doors of cinemas would be thrown open from November 1, it was heard that Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari — besides its digital premiere — would hit screens over the Diwali weekend. Similarly, Kiara Advani's Indoo Ki Jawani was slated for a late November release. As the fate of these two films hangs in the balance, Rathi adds, "The trailer of Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari doesn't mention anything about the film releasing in cinemas. So, there is no [clarity]."

The decision is bound to spark a chain reaction across the country — with Maharashtra being the biggest market, other filmmakers are likely to hold off the release of their upcoming offerings, thus leaving theatre owners in other states devoid of new releases. Raj Kumar Mehrotra, CEO, Delite Cinemas, Delhi, that re-started its operations on October 16, says each show sees barely 10 per cent occupancy. "We are running in losses. Where the 50 per cent capacity translates to 490 seats in our cinema, we barely see 30 to 40 people per show. Over the weekend, the footfall increases to 15 per cent."

Gurmeet Singh Seble of Seble Cinema, Delhi, urges the Multiplex Association of India to rethink its decision of not screening OTT films. "It will do wonders for us if we can screen Akshay Kumar's Laxmii. Nobody wants to watch past blockbusters. We need new films."