21 July,2009 07:58 AM IST | | Amul Sharma
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap wants audiences to boycott Fame Cinemas and has started a nationwide campaign against the multiplex chain.
And all this because one of his friends was denied tickets to Gabhricha Paus, a Marathi flick. In his latest blog, Anurag mentions how it went down. The friend wanted to catch a show of the film at Fame Nakshatra, Dadar.
Why waste time?
Rages Anurag, "This kind of unprofessional behaviour can only can be seen in our city. People who run multiplexesu00a0 don't really care if they mistreat a film harshly.
A small film like Gabhricha Paus which has got Indian cinema an international standing by being selected for numerous film festivals and has also being bought by a mainstream Australian channel for an exclusive broadcasting rights, cannot be treated in this manner.
The manager told the waiting crowd, 'Why are you wasting time on this stupid regional film!' A prominent cinema chain is just killing a good movie simply because the producer is new to this whole game."
Can't cancel!
Anurag continues, "Out of the 15 cinemas in Mumbai whereu00a0 the film is running, 10 are running houseful. Even in the questioned Dadar multiplex on Sunday, there was close to 80% occupancy. Nowhere in the world can cinema managers 'cancel' any shows due to lack of audience. When people are making an effort to go to theatres to watch a film, how can silly managers chase them away? I want all the people out there who have to put up with such pettiness to simply boycott the damn thing!"
On a time frame
Shunali Shroff, head of corporate communication, Fame Cinemas says, "We have kept the shows on for two people on various occasions, why would I turn away 30 people who want to come watch it? We work on a systematic time frame and when our system doesn't show any transactions for a show, the system itself announces the show as cancelled.
It was not like we turned away people and started to show some other movie in its place, the cinema was empty and remained empty till 9.45 pm, when we started to show New York in the same screen. We are in the business of showing movies for a long time now and we respect our audiences but sometimes things are not so simple as it is made out to be.
Anurag Kashyap can write whatever he wants on his blog. I just want to add that we at Fame give utmost importance to Marathi cinema and will remain to do so and nothing can deter us because of cancellation of one single show."u00a0
The man who started it all
Ashwin's letter as posted on Anurag's blog:
Yesterday, my friends and I went to watch Gabhricha Paus at Fame Nakshatra. We reached there at 6.30 for the 7.45 show. Tickets were not issued. The reason given was that they need at least 20 people for the show to start. By 7.20, there were atleast 12 people, they still refuse to open box office.
By 7.30, around 30 people were there, but they refused saying that the show had been cancelled due to low occupancy. When we argued, the manager came at 8 and was told that the people didn't even want an interval, he was adamant about not showing the film as 15 minutes of advertisements was more important to him than the movie. He also said, 'Why create uproar over a certain regional film?', which in his opinon would be pulled out of cinema halls in less than one week.
Producer-speak
Producer Prashant Pethe says, "It was unfortunate what happened to the film on the first day. But I have not heard of any further cancellation of the shows after that incident. My film is very small and movies like these get picked only because of word-of-mouth and when even five people get sent away from a show they will not be bringing in more audience the following day. This would have never happened if my film were a big one! But I can only learn for things and try to better them further on. But I am very happy that the film is going towards the right direction."
