The final curtain

On its last legs even before the pandemic swept through India, single-screen theatres and its owners from Patiala to Purnea, ghosted by the government and Bollywood, say their era is as good as gone

It's been 14 months since the box office at Colaba’s 88-year-old 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 COVID-19 bandobast duty to catch some shade. 

Even 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 single-screen theatre along with Capitol at CST, feels that the golden days of the cinema experience, are as good as gone.

Mrunalini Gole

The iconic Art Deco building designed by famed British architect Charles Stevens, was India’s first air conditioned theatre. Over the decades, it saw itself through several disruptions—the coming in of cable television, and later, competition from the fancier and technologically-advanced multiplexes. But, nothing put them out of business like the pandemic has. “There is absolutely no hope for Regal now,” says Ahmadullah, the dejection evident in his voice.

When 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 “modest estimate” of 100 single-screen cinemas across India, folding up due to COVID-19. Of these, Dattar had predicted that 25 would be from Mumbai alone. Photographer-cinematographer Hemant Chaturvedi, who visited 655 single-screen theatres across 11 states between 2019 and 2020, travelling in the middle of the lockdown, for a first-of-its-kind documentation of the last remain vestiges of India’s cinematic glory, has a grimmer forecast. In 2019, when Chaturvedi began his passion project, there were 6,300 single-screens in India. When compared with 20,000-odd single-screens in early 2000 and 9,710 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. “With 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 this].” 

Photographer Hemant Chaturvedi, who has been documenting the last surviving cinemas of India, shares that single screens are down from 20,000 in early 2000s to 6,300 in 2019. “Most will be finished in another two years. They cannot recover from this.” Pic/Suresh Karkera

While it is assumed that COVID-19 protocols can be followed in large single theatres—where people can easily sit one or two seats apart, as stipulated by the government—what doesn’t work in the favour of any cinema hall, is that it’s a closed space, says Ahmadullah. “Having a large number of people, even if the theatre is just filled to half capacity, in a closed atmosphere, it’s worrisome. It would make anyone uncomfortable.”

Another problem is the lack of recreational spaces within the premises. “Multiplexes 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 there,” he says. Single-screen theatres like Regal, he says, were built with the idea of maximising the auditorium space. “And that’s why the lobbies and passages are narrow—just enough for people to walk in and out.” This also means that if there’s a large crowd inside the premises, it would be hard to follow physical distancing during entry and exit.

Vishek Chauhan (in white), says his theatre, Roopbani Cinema in Purnea, Bihar, has survived, because his competitors disappeared. They are already crippled by Bollywood’s new elitist content failing to attract crowds in smaller towns

Mrunalini Gole, wife of late Nazir Hoosein, owner of another grand Mumbai single-screen, Liberty Cinema at Marine Lines, says that even before the pandemic, the theatre was struggling to make ends meet. “Things were going fine till about 2017. We had a tie-up 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 didn’t work out, and since 2018, we’ve not been doing too well. [The pandemic in] 2020 was the final nail in the coffin.”

Maintaining a structure like Liberty, which not only boasts of a 1,200-seater auditorium, but is an architectural marvel to behold, with opulently designed geometrical ceilings, grandly-lit 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. “And that’s because they have 40,000 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 money,” he says.

Gole says this is why Liberty decided against opening up, when the lockdown was lifted last year. “There were no big releases [between November and March] that would attract large crowds. Today, keeping Liberty shut is a better option.”

Paying 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 weren’t open to public until February this year. “We 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 more,” Gole admits. 

Raghav 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 courtesy/Hemant Chaturvedi

In August last year, Central Plaza in Girgaum, formerly known as Central Cinema, shut its doors for good, after a near 57-year run.  Gole  feels that a similar fate awaits other theatres. “It 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 doesn’t have any pride in its heritage, then why stick us with such a label. How long can we keep digging into our own pockets?” she asks.
 
In Bihar’s Purnea district, Vishek Chauhan says he managed to keep his single-screen 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. “When 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 dwindled,” says Chauhan, in a telephonic interview to mid-day. Chauhan renovated Roopbani to give it a multiplex-feel, 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 single-screens. “Only about five, or maximum 10 films in a year, are universal— the kind of cinema that will be accepted pan-India. Otherwise, Bollywood is a fairly metro phenomenon, catering to the ultra-rich, urban resident. This also explains why they have been co-opted so seamlessly by OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon. In the process, they have alienated a majority of India’s viewers,” he says, adding, “You need content to run a cinema hall, and if you don’t get the kind of content that your audience wants to watch, how will you run a theatre?”

Raghav Gupta

That most Bollywood heroes are also shunning their stardom for what they call meaty acting roles—with the exception of Salman Khan, who can still spin box office magic with his mass entertainers—means most single-screens in the small towns of northern India no longer draw crowds. “They 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 business,” he says. To add to their woes are the distributors, demanding a lion’s share of the box office revenue. Chauhan says that during the pandemic, at least 60 theatres shut down in Bihar alone. “We have had to let go of most of our staff. How can we keep them, when we haven’t made a single penny? Fortunately, I have other business interests, and that’s how we’ve managed to pull through.” 

Raghav Gupta, who runs Phul Cinema in Patiala, understands Chauhan’s 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 year-long renovation project, which cost him nearly Rs 5 crore. He had barely broken even, when the lockdown was imposed in March 2020. “We opened twice after that. Once, in November for the Diljit Dosanjh-starrer 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 didn’t dare to enter the theatre,” he says. 

Ruban 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 year

Gupta had pinned his hopes on the Salman Khan-starrer Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai, scheduled to release on May 13. It would have been a sure shot crowd-puller, if not for the second wave that gripped the country. The film will hit the theatres and ZEE5’s pay per view platform ZeePlex simultaneously. The release model hasn’t gone down well with many film exhibitors. “With this kind of release, we are challenging the basic fundamentals of the business. There is a huge question mark over the existence of cinemas,” he says.

Down south, where the movie industry continues to be star-driven, single-screen theatres have not had to face the kind of hopelessness felt in the rest of India. Unlike Bollywood, the south industry didn’t shy away from releasing their big ticket films during the pandemic. In January, Tamil-language action thriller Master, starring Vijay, released globally. Despite COVID restrictions and 50 per cent occupancy in theatres, it passed the R200 crore-mark at the box office. Ruban Mathivanan, owner of GK Cinemas in Chennai, which started out as a single-screen hall in 1974 and was converted into a two-screen multiplex in 2016, says that while they managed to cover up their losses with a few-odd releases during the pandemic, it has been the most difficult time to be in the business. “We 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. It’s such a shame,” he says. 

Ruban Mathivanan

Mathivanan says that hadn’t it been for Master, and Bakkiyaraj Kannan’s 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. “We don’t 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. It’s going to be the same cycle again.”

While many theatres have stopped operations permanently during the lockdown, state laws have prevented many cinema owners from converting their properties into other businesses.

Regal was built with the idea of maximising the auditorium space. “And that’s why the lobbies and passages are narrow—just enough for people to walk in and out,” 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. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Chaturvedi 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. “There are of course, people who have managed to subvert the rule, and demolish the cinema to build a mall,” he says. 

“Places like Regal and Capitol come under the heritage tag, and they cannot be demolished.” In smaller towns, many theatre owners have now converted their properties into godowns. 

Chaturvedi feels that the one way in which single-screen theatres can overcome this calamity, is by reinventing themselves. “When 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 tie-up 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 them,” says Chaturvedi. “The truth is that movies were made for the big screen and not for television. I still remember going to watch Mughal-e-Azam [in 2004], when it re-released 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 Madhubala’s Anarkali says, ‘Kaaton ko murjhane ka khauf nahin hota’, and you hear 900 people say it together with her… it is like listening to a Greek theatre chorus.” This, he says, cannot be replicated ever again.

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No. of theatres estimated to have that shuttered in Bihar during the pandemic

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