KOLKATA: Twelve days after the government allowed 100% occupancy, this Friday was a litmus test for cinemas in Bengal. Despite the release of three Bengali movies, most cinemas failed to register impressive numbers. An iconic cinema like Paradise has decided to remain shut and if the weekend collections aren’t good, the only ray of hope for Bengal’s exhibitors will be the theatrical release of ‘Sooryavanshi’.
Navin Choukhani, the owner of Navina, said the first day’s collection of ‘Prem Tame’ was below expectation. “With Saraswati Puja around the corner, we are hoping for a good week ahead,” Choukhani said. According to Arijit Dutta, owner of Priya that released ‘Magic’ and ‘Dictionary’, there has been no improvement in sales this week. “The situation has not improved. We are looking forward to the weekend to see if it changes. The film industry is going to be in a stressful situation,” Dutta said. It will require “real big movies” to release for things to change, he added.
It’s a similar story at Bijoli. According to owner Suranjan Paul, who is screening two shows of ‘Prem Tame’ and one show of ‘Magic’, the footfall is not encouraging. “People are not turning up. The situation is no better at Chhabighar. I’m carrying on but with this kind of footfall, I sometimes feel it would have been better to keep the cinemas shut. The situation will improve when schools and colleges open in full swing and youngsters start coming in large numbers,” Paul said.
Ratan Saha, chairman of the exhibitors’ section of Eastern India Motion Pictures Association, is worried. “The cinema industry is going through a very bad phase. Nothing will improve unless big Hindi movies release,” Saha said.
Arun Mehra of Bengal Properties Private Ltd, which runs Paradise, told TOI that the cinema is “not reopening yet”. “We are ready to wait till we are sure that we have enough programmes one after the other so that we can judge whether we can reduce our loss or increase it,” Mehra said.
The bigger worry is the onset of the summer months. In winter, cinemas usually switch on the AC for a short time. “Viewers feel cold after a point and ask us to switch off the AC. But summer will be different. Now, we can manage by paying Rs 40,000-Rs 50,000, but with the onset of summer, the expense will go up to Rs 2.5 lakh. If we don’t see that kind of coverage coming from the movies, why will we start? We don’t want to start a cinema hall just for the sake of it. We must be able to cover our cost,” he said.