Satish Kaushik's mobile theatre to have tickets priced between Rs 35 to Rs 75

Satish Kaushik

To make cinema accessible for people in smaller towns and rural parts of the country, filmmaker Satish Kaushik has launched a make-shift theatre that will travel to villages on a truck. The Mobile Digital Movie Theatre (MDMT) will be launched in Delhi today by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Ten theatre units will hit the roads in a couple of months, each of which is named after a famous Bollywood movie, or character. Select names allotted to the trucks include Mr India, Baahubali, Shehanshah and Don. Kaushik tells mid-day that he intends to price the tickets between Rs 35 to Rs 75, based on how recent the film that is being screened is. While tickets will be available for purchase on the MDMT mobile application and the counter, on the spot, the unit is "also planning to collaborate with ticketing websites like Bookmyshow," says Kaushik.

The central government is enabling the actor to take his portable theatre to different villages across India. They have yet to decide the places that the screenings will be held at. "Though the government is not funding the initiative, it is supporting us by ensuring that we can seamlessly procure permissions, including for the use of land and deployment of fire and police officials. In fact, we are giving preferred ad space to them so that they can connect with the citizens," says Kaushik.

A theatre of this nature, Kaushik feels, is an easy way to provide entertainment in a country where real-estate prices are always soaring high. "Having a portable theatre that's real-estate independent and low on regulatory compliances [would be] apt," says Kaushik, who has also got private funding partners on board the initiative. Talking about the features of the mini cinema hall, he says, "Each MDMT will have a 22-foot screen with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. It will be air-conditioned and will seat around 200 people. The hall will only have one category of tickets as we want to offer affordable cinema."

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