The final curtain

Its been 14 months since the box office at Colabarsquos 88yearold Regal Cinema last opened to the public Once bursting with a sea of people hovering around its narrow passageway snaking into the screening hall it now sits like an abandoned artefact on Causeway used only by cops on COVID19 bandobast duty to catch some shadeEven when theatre owners were given the green signal to run shows with 50 per cent occupancy in November last year Regal remained shut The hope was to start sometime in the new year when the pandemic had settled Nothing settled Not the pandemic nor the movie business Saleem Ahmadullah director of Globe Theatres Pvt Ltd the company that runs the singlescreen theatre along with Capitol at CST feels that the golden days of the cinema experience are as good as goneMrunalini GoleThe iconic Art Deco building designed by famed British architect Charles Stevens was Indiarsquos first air conditioned theatre Over the decades it saw itself through several disruptionsmdashthe coming in of cable television and later competition from the fancier and technologicallyadvanced multiplexes But nothing put them out of business like the pandemic has ldquoThere is absolutely no hope for Regal nowrdquo says Ahmadullah the dejection evident in his voiceWhen India was in the throes of the first Coronavirus wave in September 2020 Nitin Dattar president of the Theatre Owners Association in an interview to The Quint had given a ldquomodest estimaterdquo of 100 singlescreen cinemas across India folding up due to COVID19 Of these Dattar had predicted that 25 would be from Mumbai alone Photographercinematographer Hemant Chaturvedi who visited 655 singlescreen theatres across 11 states between 2019 and 2020 travelling in the middle of the lockdown for a firstofitskind documentation of the last remain vestiges of Indiarsquos cinematic glory has a grimmer forecast In 2019 when Chaturvedi began his passion project there were 6300 singlescreens in India When compared with 20000odd singlescreens in early 2000 and 9710 in 2009 this number he says was alarming He fears that half of these may bite the bullet sooner than expected The lockdown he thinks has only hastened the inevitable collapse ldquoWith people being incarcerated in their homes for nearly a year and probably indefinitely ahead due to the pandemic everyone has found cheaper alternative ways to access content My personal opinion is that the cinema halls are not going to exist after two years They cannot recover from thisrdquoPhotographer Hemant Chaturvedi who has been documenting the last surviving cinemas of India shares that single screens are down from 20000 in early 2000s to 6300 in 2019 ldquoMost will be finished in another two years They cannot recover from thisrdquo PicSuresh KarkeraWhile it is assumed that COVID19 protocols can be followed in large single theatresmdashwhere people can easily sit one or two seats apart as stipulated by the governmentmdashwhat doesnrsquot work in the favour of any cinema hall is that itrsquos a closed space says Ahmadullah ldquoHaving a large number of people even if the theatre is just filled to half capacity in a closed atmosphere itrsquos worrisome It would make anyone uncomfortablerdquoAnother problem is the lack of recreational spaces within the premises ldquoMultiplexes are usually located inside a building or mall which is designed like an entertainment centre You have shopping stores restaurants etc and so people end up spending a lot of time thererdquo he says Singlescreen theatres like Regal he says were built with the idea of maximising the auditorium space ldquoAnd thatrsquos why the lobbies and passages are narrowmdashjust enough for people to walk in and outrdquo This also means that if therersquos a large crowd inside the premises it would be hard to follow physical distancing during entry and exitVishek Chauhan in white says his theatre Roopbani Cinema in Purnea Bihar has survived because his competitors disappeared They are already crippled by Bollywoodrsquos new elitist content failing to attract crowds in smaller townsMrunalini Gole wife of late Nazir Hoosein owner of another grand Mumbai singlescreen Liberty Cinema at Marine Lines says that even before the pandemic the theatre was struggling to make ends meet ldquoThings were going fine till about 2017 We had a tieup with Carnival Cinemas which was supplying movies to us and that ensured a minimum income for us for a couple of years But unfortunately things didnrsquot work out and since 2018 wersquove not been doing too well The pandemic in 2020 was the final nail in the coffinrdquoMaintaining a structure like Liberty which not only boasts of a 1200seater auditorium but is an architectural marvel to behold with opulently designed geometrical ceilings grandlylit carpeted stairways and mirrored walls comes at a huge cost Chaturvedi remembers when he got permission to shoot inside Liberty the only request that was made was to not waste too much time shooting the auditorium ldquoAnd thatrsquos because they have 40000 incandescent bulbs lighting up the space and one can only imagine the amount of electricity being consumed To keep it running even for an hour would cost a lot of moneyrdquo he saysGole says this is why Liberty decided against opening up when the lockdown was lifted last year ldquoThere were no big releases between November and March that would attract large crowds Today keeping Liberty shut is a better optionrdquoPaying the staff has been another challenge Most of them lived away from the work address and were in no position to come to work since the local trains werenrsquot open to public until February this year ldquoWe held on to our staff for the longest time paying only 25 per cent of their original salary Only last month finally we let two of them go If this continues we may have to retrench a few morerdquo Gole admitsRaghav Gupta owner of Phul Cinema in Patiala renovated the Art Deco structure in 2018 at a cost of Rs 5 crore They had just broken even when the pandemic hit It has only opened twice since March 2020 PIC courtesyHemant ChaturvediIn August last year Central Plaza in Girgaum formerly known as Central Cinema shut its doors for good after a near 57year run Gole feels that a similar fate awaits other theatres ldquoIt hurts like hell Because we are a heritage structure the government should be helping us nurture and maintain it There is absolutely no support coming in If the government doesnrsquot have any pride in its heritage then why stick us with such a label How long can we keep digging into our own pocketsrdquo she asksIn Biharrsquos Purnea district Vishek Chauhan says he managed to keep his singlescreen theatre Roopbani Cinema running due to sheer luck Roopbani originally built in 1960 is the oldest theatre in Purnea Vishek who is the fourth generation running the family business took over in 2009 ldquoWhen I returned to my hometown 12 years ago there were 60 theatres in the area Today there are four or five I only survived because my competitors dwindledrdquo says Chauhan in a telephonic interview to midday Chauhan renovated Roopbani to give it a multiplexfeel investing in a Rs 35 lakh 2K projector and redoing the interiors But over time Bollywood has switched to making more elitist content which hurt singlescreens ldquoOnly about five or maximum 10 films in a year are universalmdash the kind of cinema that will be accepted panIndia Otherwise Bollywood is a fairly metro phenomenon catering to the ultrarich urban resident This also explains why they have been coopted so seamlessly by OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon In the process they have alienated a majority of Indiarsquos viewersrdquo he says adding ldquoYou need content to run a cinema hall and if you donrsquot get the kind of content that your audience wants to watch how will you run a theatrerdquoRaghav GuptaThat most Bollywood heroes are also shunning their stardom for what they call meaty acting rolesmdashwith the exception of Salman Khan who can still spin box office magic with his mass entertainersmdashmeans most singlescreens in the small towns of northern India no longer draw crowds ldquoThey were already a dying breed but the pandemic has unfortunately broken their back Everyone here is looking for opportunities to get out of the cinema businessrdquo he says To add to their woes are the distributors demanding a lionrsquos share of the box office revenue Chauhan says that during the pandemic at least 60 theatres shut down in Bihar alone ldquoWe have had to let go of most of our staff How can we keep them when we havenrsquot made a single penny Fortunately I have other business interests and thatrsquos how wersquove managed to pull throughrdquoRaghav Gupta who runs Phul Cinema in Patiala understands Chauhanrsquos despondency The Art Deco structure built right after Independence was originally designed by WM Namjoshi the architect behind Liberty and New Empire in Mumbai Raj Mandir in Jaipur and Golcha in Delhi The building was restored to its original glory in October 2018 after a yearlong renovation project which cost him nearly Rs 5 crore He had barely broken even when the lockdown was imposed in March 2020 ldquoWe opened twice after that Once in November for the Diljit Dosanjhstarrer Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari and then for a Punjabi film Both met with disastrous results Due to the fear of contracting the Coronavirus most people didnrsquot dare to enter the theatrerdquo he saysRuban Mathivanan of GK Cinemas in Chennai says he was able to make some profits due to the release of Tamil films Master and Sulthan this yearGupta had pinned his hopes on the Salman Khanstarrer Radhe Your Most Wanted Bhai scheduled to release on May 13 It would have been a sure shot crowdpuller if not for the second wave that gripped the country The film will hit the theatres and ZEE5rsquos pay per view platform ZeePlex simultaneously The release model hasnrsquot gone down well with many film exhibitors ldquoWith this kind of release we are challenging the basic fundamentals of the business There is a huge question mark over the existence of cinemasrdquo he saysDown south where the movie industry continues to be stardriven singlescreen theatres have not had to face the kind of hopelessness felt in the rest of India Unlike Bollywood the south industry didnrsquot shy away from releasing their big ticket films during the pandemic In January Tamillanguage action thriller Master starring Vijay released globally Despite COVID restrictions and 50 per cent occupancy in theatres it passed the R200 croremark at the box office Ruban Mathivanan owner of GK Cinemas in Chennai which started out as a singlescreen hall in 1974 and was converted into a twoscreen multiplex in 2016 says that while they managed to cover up their losses with a fewodd releases during the pandemic it has been the most difficult time to be in the business ldquoWe have had to pay our staff through the lockdown The government also continued to take property tax and charged us for electricity There was absolutely no relief Itrsquos such a shamerdquo he saysRuban MathivananMathivanan says that hadnrsquot it been for Master and Bakkiyaraj Kannanrsquos film Sulthan that released in April theatres in Tamil Nadu would have suffered the same fate as their northern counterparts The theatres in Chennai shut shop last week after cases peaked in the city ldquoWe donrsquot know when we are going to open again Even when we do we will have to wait for a big release to help see us through Itrsquos going to be the same cycle againrdquoWhile many theatres have stopped operations permanently during the lockdown state laws have prevented many cinema owners from converting their properties into other businessesRegal was built with the idea of maximising the auditorium space ldquoAnd thatrsquos why the lobbies and passages are narrowmdashjust enough for people to walk in and outrdquo says Saleem Ahmadullah director of Globe Theatres Pvt Ltd that runs the theatre This would make it tough to follow physical distancing rules during entry and exit PicBipin KokateChaturvedi says that according to the law a plot that is originally designated as cinema property must have a theatre with 33 per cent occupancy of the original hall on the premises even if it is redeveloped ldquoThere are of course people who have managed to subvert the rule and demolish the cinema to build a mallrdquo he saysldquoPlaces like Regal and Capitol come under the heritage tag and they cannot be demolishedrdquo In smaller towns many theatre owners have now converted their properties into godownsChaturvedi feels that the one way in which singlescreen theatres can overcome this calamity is by reinventing themselves ldquoWhen some of these theatre owners reached out to me asking for suggestions I told them that one of the things that they could do was to repurpose the cinema hall into a pay per view space where they can make three of four smaller theatres of 30 to 50 seats each inside the venue and tieup with some of the leading content providers So if a bunch of friends want to binge watch Game of Thrones on the big screen with Dolby Digital theatre sound you can host themrdquo says Chaturvedi ldquoThe truth is that movies were made for the big screen and not for television I still remember going to watch MughaleAzam in 2004 when it rereleased in colour at Gaiety Galaxy in Bandra What was fascinating was that irrespective of the age and gender of the audience they knew every moment and dialogue from the film When Madhubalarsquos Anarkali says lsquoKaaton ko murjhane ka khauf nahin hotarsquo and you hear 900 people say it together with herhellip it is like listening to a Greek theatre chorusrdquo This he says cannot be replicated ever again60No of theatres estimated to have that shuttered in Bihar during the pandemic