More
screens,
more
films,
and
longer
windows
will
convert
to
more
people
watching,
assuming
they
know
a
film
is
releasing,
points
out
Vanita
Kohli-Khandekar.
R
S
Prasanna’s
Sitaare
Zameen
Par
is
a
heartwarming
film
—
not
just
cinematically.
Its
success,
following
the
decision
of
its
producer
Aamir
Khan
Production
(AKPL),
to
hold
back
on
any
OTT
deal
till
the
movie
has
had
a
full
run
in
theatres,
has
brought
hope
and
cheer
to
the
Indian
film
industry.
With
this
move,
actor
Aamir
Khan,
who
owns
AKPL,
has
bucked
the
trend
wherein
most
large
production
houses
release
a
film
only
after
stitching
an
OTT
deal.
This
helps
them
recover
costs
—
and
even
make
a
small
profit
—
before
the
film
even
hits
theatres.
This
is
because
of
“the
release
window
between
theatre
and
streaming,”
says
Yusuf
Galabhaiwala,
director-operations
of
Galalite
Screens,
a
Mumbai-based
screen-making
firm.
The
shorter
the
window,
usually
2-6
weeks,
the
less
likely
it
is
that
audiences
will
walk
into
the
theatre
to
see
a
small
or
medium-budget
film
such
as
12th
Fail
or
Laapataa
Ladies,
which
is
more
about
the
story
than
about
star
power
or
histrionics,
a
la
Pushpa
2.
With
Sitaare
Zameen
Par,
which
hit
theatres
on
June
20,
Aamir
Khan,
who
has
been
critical
of
the
short
window
between
a
film’s
theatrical
and
OTT
release,
has
put
his
money
where
his
mouth
is.
Another
person
who
has
taken
it
upon
himself
to
help
turn
the
industry’s
fortunes
around
is
SVF
Entertainment’s
cofounder
Mahendra
Soni.
His
firm
is
working
to
revive
cinema
screens
in
West
Bengal,
where
their
count
had
fallen
from
400
in
2000
to
140
in
2015.
SVF,
which
has
produced
films
like
Chokher
Bali,
Raincoat,
and
Chitrangada,
mapped
the
state’s
23
districts
and
started
building,
managing,
or
acquiring
screens.
Bolpur,
Purulia,
Krishnanagar,
Narendrapur,
Baruipur,
Jalpaiguri
are
among
the
23
West
Bengal
towns
where
it
now
manages
or
owns
53
screens.
The
count
is
expected
to
go
up
to
75
in
the
financial
year
ending
March
2026.
Meanwhile,
the
overall
number
of
screens
in
the
state
has
gone
up
to
nearly
200.
“Kolkata
is
multilingual,
but
outside
of
the
city,
only
Bengali
films
work,”
says
Soni.
“Our
collections
were
dipping
not
because
the
city
wasn’t
working,
but
because
there
weren’t
enough
theatres
outside
of
Kolkata.”
SVF
Entertainment,
which
had
a
revenue
of
Rs
300
crore
(Rs
3
billion)
in
FY24,
has
distributed
over
1,500
films,
of
which
it
has
made
250.
Its
share
of
the
net
box
office
collection
in
West
Bengal
has
doubled
from
under
10
per
cent
to
20
per
cent.
“Our
screens
emerged
in
places
that
had
no
cinemas,”
says
Soni.
In
the
city
of
Chinsurah,
for
instance,
box
office
collections
went
up
from
zero
to
Rs
15
lakh
(Rs
1.5
million)
for
a
single
film.
“This
is
pure
additive
revenue.”
To
expand,
grow,
and
become
profitable,
Indian
cinema
needs
three
things:
More
screens,
money
to
make
more
movies,
and
better
marketing.
SVF’s
response
to
the
declining
number
of
screens
and
AKPL’s
to
the
broken
cinema-going
habit
are
part
of
the
efforts
to
pull
the
Indian
movie
business
out
of
the
tough
spot
it
finds
itself
in.
Photograph:
Francis
Mascarenhas/Reuters
Bringing
in
money
&
audience
Late
last
year,
filmmaker
Karan
Johar
sold
half
his
stake
in
Dharma
Productions
to
Serum
Institute
of
India’s
CEO
Adar
Poonawalla
for
Rs
1,000
crore
(Rs
10
billion).
Around
the
same
time,
the
family-run
Baweja
Productions,
the
studio
behind
Mrs,
Chaar
Sahibzaade,
and
Diljale,
went
public
to
raise
about
Rs
97
crore
(Rs
970
million).
“Venture
capital/private
equity
funds
look
at
the
business
differently.
This
mode
gives
us
room
to
expand,”
says
Harman
Baweja,
its
chairman
and
managing
director.
From
one
a
year,
Baweja
Productions
is
now
looking
at
5
to
7
projects
across
theatres,
streaming,
and
television,
besides
dabbling
in
various
genres,
including
animation,
and
languages.
This
ability
to
scale
up,
with
non-strategic
capital,
is
critical
if
the
falling
number
of
films
hitting
theatres
has
to
be
tackled.
More
screens,
more
films,
and
longer
windows
will
convert
to
more
people
watching,
assuming
they
know
a
film
is
releasing.
As
it
stands
today,
for
big
releases,
like
Mission
Impossible:
The
Final
Reckoning,
or
small
ones,
like
Superboys
of
Malegaon,
promotional
activities
begin
quite
late
in
the
day
—
often,
just
before
the
first
weekend.
“Marketing
has
become
very
formulaic
and
templatised,”
says
Jyoti
Deshpande,
president,
Jio
Studios.
“It
is
about
releasing
a
trailer
on
YouTube
and
Meta,
and
buying
views.
That
informs
the
trade,
but
does
it
help
convert
into
actual
people
buying
the
ticket?”
she
asks.
“People
spend
10
per
cent
of
their
budget
on
BookMyShow.
But
what
are
they
doing
to
get
the
audience
onto
BookMyShow?”
asks
Soni.
Jio
Studios,
meanwhile,
is
among
others,
like
Galalite
and
Dolby,
who
are
continuing
to
invest
to
expand
the
market.
This
July,
City
Pride
in
Pune
will
be
among
the
first
of
the
six
theatres
to
have
Dolby
Cinema
in
India.
It
includes
a
bundle
of
products
and
services,
from
projection
and
Atmos
screens
(of
which
there
are
1,000
in
India)
to
the
actual
physical
design
of
the
seating
and
speakers.
“Our
brand
has
been
built
on
cinema;
it
is
the
first
point
of
entry
for
our
products
in
India,”
says
Sameer
Seth,
director,
marketing
(India),
Dolby
Laboratories.
“We
need
collaborations
with
large
international
companies
to
take
our
film
international;
the
algorithm
(on
streaming)
will
not
throw
up
Laapataa
Ladies,”
says
Deshpande.
Jio
Studios’
focus
is
on
bringing
down
the
cost
of
production
using
artificial
intelligence
and
other
technologies.
It
is
initiatives
such
as
these,
and
bold
decisions
by
a
brave
few,
that
could
make
the
silver
screen
sparkle
again.
Cinema’s
Dry
Run
“OTT
is
not
a
big
threat.
Admissions
(ticket
sales)
are
lower
because
of
a
lack
of
content,”
says
Bhuvanesh
Mendiratta,
managing
director
of
Miraj
Cinemas.
“Why
did
Pushpa
2
and
Stree
2
do
well?
People
came
out
to
watch
them,”
he
says.
True
enough.
The
real
problem
isn’t
streaming
—
it’s
simply
the
lack
of
theatrical
releases.
“The
Hindi
release
calendar
is
blank.
There
were
only
three
major
releases
in
June
—
Housefull
5,
Maa,
and
Sitaare
Zameen
Par,”
says
Shailesh
Kapoor,
CEO
of
Ormax
Media.
From
49
films
in
2019,
the
total
number
of
original
Hindi
films
released
on
1,000
or
more
screens
has
now
dropped
to
32
a
year.
It’s
a
vicious
circle.
Fewer
screens
have
made
it
harder
for
films
to
recover
costs,
which
in
turn
has
discouraged
investment
and
led
to
fewer
films
being
produced.
Streaming
platforms
offered
quick
money
and
an
alternative
distribution
outlet,
putting
further
pressure
on
cinemas.
Much
of
this
was
worsened
by
the
pandemic.
The
result:
the
main
revenue
engine
for
the
Indian
film
industry
is
now
in
serious
trouble.
Of
the
industry’s
total
revenue
of
Rs
20,000
crore
(Rs
200
billion),
about
two-thirds
—
or
nearly
Rs
12,000
crore
(Rs
120
billion)
—
came
from
theatres
in
2024.
This
is
the
most
crucial
piece
of
the
revenue
pie
because
it
determines
the
value
that
other
segments,
like
streaming
and
television,
can
generate.
But
theatres
are
hurting.
In
2024,
Indians
bought
883
million
movie
tickets,
a
6
per
cent
drop
from
2023,
according
to
data
from
Ormax
Media.
The
‘theatre-going
population’
stands
at
122
million
—
only
about
11
per
cent
of
the
country’s
total
population.
In
the
US
and
Europe,
it
is
anywhere
from
50
to
80
per
cent
of
the
population.
‘The
biggest
hits
have
a
footfall
of
about
35
million
people
—
that’s
just
2
per
cent
of
our
population.
Where
is
the
remaining
98
per
cent
watching
our
films?
For
a
vast
number
of
Indians,
there’s
simply
no
local
cinema
to
go
to,’
actor-producer
Aamir
Khan
said
at
WAVES
recently.
The
world’s
largest
film-producing
country
has
just
6
screens
per
million
people,
compared
to
around
125
in
the
US
or
30
in
China.
Until
more
tickets
are
sold
—
meaning
more
people
walking
in,
and
more
often
—
the
business
cannot
expand.
Only
when
ticket
sales
reach
1.2
to
1.5
billion
annually
can
the
industry’s
scale
begin
to
truly
reflect
India’s
size.
Feature
Presentation:
Aslam
Hunani/Rediff