Multiplexes changed the way movies were screened, viewed and even made. But the conventional blockbuster has stood its ground and this makes the mix of films coming out of Bollywood so interesting, writes Indu Mirani.
As the 21st century rolled along and brought in its wake the Y2K panic in which the general fright was that planes would fall out of the sky as computers crashed, a much quieter revolution was unfolding: the way the audience viewed cinema.
After years of enduring bad projection, torn seats, dirty halls and even dirtier toilets, the audience in the 1990s had decided that they would just get their fix of films from video, leading to the parallel video piracy industry, camera prints and illegal video theatres. The film industry fretted and fumed at the loss of revenue, took out morchas, went on strikes, but to no avail. They even tried to enforce the diktat that videos couldn’t release before a film had had at least a six-month run but, expectedly, the pirates turned a deaf ear to it and sometimes released the video even before the legitimate print could be screened in cinema halls.
Finally in 2002 Fame Cinema, Mumbai’s first multiplex, provided some light at the end of the long tunnel. Cine-goers flocked in hordes to experience a film in clean environs with clear sound and images and interval eats that went beyond salted popcorn and samosas. Before long the light grew bigger, larger and more luxurious as more and more multiplexes opened, each trying to lure the audience with a better experience by way of bigger popcorn tubs, deluxe seats and gaming centres.
And so was born the multiplex culture and with it the multiplex film. And it is this multiplex film that has brought in a change of cinema.
But a word of caution: it’s not all new. In a way, multiplex cinema is a different name for the middle-of-the-road cinema that Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee made their own. These were films that relied on a logical, sensible story, powerhouse talent and meticulous pre-editing that drastically cut down cost of making. I remember Amitabh Bachchan narrating an incident in which Hrishida (as Hrishikesh Mukherjee was respectfully called) one day asked him to wear a red kurta even though he had been wearing a blue one that day for a scene. It was only when Amitabh saw the film that he figured that Hrishida knew that another scene was going to be shot on the same location and was saving everyone time, money and precious raw stock by also shooting his portions for the other scene.
Multiplex cinema is at its simplest an understanding of the mathematics of filmmaking. Once the maker has identified his audience (multiplex patrons are presumed to be more discerning than mass single screen audiences, but fewer in number), he will usually be able to calculate what his recovery (from all sectors) will be. With appropriate calculation he then determines what his budget will be. Since he isn’t catering to a pan-India audience that has as much variation in taste as there are states, the director can afford to experiment to some degree with the content and can also back new talent.
More than anything it was this scope to move away from the big budget, mass, mainstream film that worked to a set formula of number of songs, dances, action scenes and dictates of regional distributors that really liberated cinema from the shackles it had been bound to.
What also works for multiplexes is the limited number of seats for every show. With an average capacity of 250 it is now possible for a niche film to run for at least a week. During the pre-multiplex era most offbeat films couldn’t find a cinema hall to show their film because owners were reluctant to screen a film they knew would not bring in an audience thus severely cutting down their earnings. Akashvani, a government run auditorium, showed National Award winning films but it was not uncommon to be one of just a handful of people in the cinema. In later years it fell into disuse and then closed down.
Bu though multiplexes provided the means for exhibition there was still always going to be, and indeed still is, a need for like-minded people to back the film. Almost simultaneously (in the early 2000’s) with the way multiplexes were changing viewing habits, the government was attempting to free the film industry from the clutches of the underworld, their long time financiers. In 2001 films were granted “industry status”, allowing for corporate funds to flow in. Though this was treated with some skepticism by financial institutions, when the dust settled a few big players, including Eros, Viacom 18, Reliance, and Fox, among others, emerged. Though these too are partial to A-list projects they occasionally temper their plate with films that in earlier days would never be made except under the dreaded ‘art film’ category.
Today multiplexes also exhibit regional cinema. While earlier these films got a release only in the pockets where their audience lived today one will not have to go too far to see an acclaimed regional film. This has also meant a revival of regional cinema, another offshoot of the multiplex culture. All this is not to say that the changeover is absolute. Rather it’s the mix that is so interesting.
So even as you have the Akshay Kumars, Ajay Devgans, Salman Khans, Hrithik Roshans and several others who act and occasionally produce those big ticket movies that go back to the formula of the 1980’s and ‘90’s, there are several directors and actors who have made entire careers in multiplex films. Anurag Kashyap (till his commercial scale up in Bombay Velvet corrupted him) is one of the leading lights in this category. Vikramaditya Motwane, a protege of Anurag is another and then there is Dibaker Banerjee, Subhash Kapoor, Vikas Behl, whose Queen was supposed to be a small quirky film, actors Rajkumar Rao, Huma Qureshi, Richa Chaddha. And they have received not just critical acclaim but box office success too.
After years of enduring bad projection, torn seats, dirty halls and even dirtier toilets, the audience in the 1990s had decided that they would just get their fix of films from video, leading to the parallel video piracy industry, camera prints and illegal video theatres.
