Week after week, but for a rare Dhurandhar, I have often been one of the handful audiences in cinema halls. Often for a small-budget film like Vadh 2, I have to check beforehand whether the first day first show will actually run. As a film critic it’s my job to watch a film — good, bad and ugly.
But as someone who loves cinema, it breaks my heart to see near empty halls for majority of releases, especially small films sans star power. And my heart broke further more when the much feted director, Anurag Kashyap, slammed theatres/cinema halls for killing Bandar and Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga. That a man of his calibre should attribute the underwhelming audience turnout for his latest film, Bandar, to a lack of shows is, in itself, a sad reflection of the state of the industry today.
Anurag’s Bandar opened to rave reviews. But as is with most films, there is a gap between what critics think and what audience desires. Thus despite Bobbly Deol’s stellar act, the dark slice of unsettling cinema, which is indeed Anurag’s wont, Bandar went begging for audiences. Strangely enough, he pinned the blame on theatres for giving precedence to a Hollywood film Obsession which interestingly is a small budget film. In an act of camaraderie, Anurag expressed his frustration over not just his film’s poor show but also Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga. Interestingly, while Main Vaapas Aaunga opened low, it has been picking up not just numbers but also more shows.
Typically a film with no big stars does not get enough shows unless word of mouth publicity pushes up the numbers. Indeed, in the Covid phase, the whole dynamics of film making and distribution changed. More and more films released on OTT and even after theatres reopened, the number of films premiering directly on streamers remained steady. While answer to whether OTT viewers are any different from cinegoers is hard to decipher, streaming platforms have become a safe bet. Even Anurag’s celebrated Kennedy had its India release on Zee 5.
Like us, Anurag too is unable to fathom why his fans who love watching his kind of cinema won’t go to theatres for his films. A sure-shot anomaly… but can Hollywood be blamed for it? Should distributors give preference to desi cinema over Hollywood biggies? But then, the same logic can be applied to regional cinema. This is the demand which Punjabi filmmakers have been making for a long, long time. Yes, in some regions like Maharashtra there are some caveats in place, which work in favour of Marathi films. But while cinema is as much an art as business, its distribution clearly and solely is a business enterprise. Unless the government pitches in with some kind of subsidy model to protect cinema, cinema halls can’t be expected to pick up the tab.
Besides, this is not the first time a Hollywood film is giving Bollywood run for its money. India has emerged as a huge market for Hollywood. Next month as Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey will have an all India release, even a star- studded premiere in Mumbai, one wonders whether any Hindi film would dare to clash with it. Nolan’s fan base in India is so legendary that when the world watched Barbie, we were hooked to Oppenheimer. In an ideal situation, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, which brought India a rare honour from Cannes, should have done roaring business.
Alas, cinema might depict utopian society, the real world does not follow its idealism. Audiences might diss bad movies, but they don’t care much for supporting quality cinema if it does not appeal to their sensibilities. No one can dictate audiences’ tastes; not cerebral critics, certainly not the acclaimed and disgruntled filmmakers. If makers have the choice of creating what they want, so do audiences. The buck does not stop at the distribution system either.
Anurag will certainly find a place in the annals of cinematic history, but nothing can guarantee, not even more shows, the box-office success of his qualitative cinema. The only good thing is he or an Imtiaz won’t stop making the kind of films they believe in. Once in a while audiences might resonate with it, might rediscover its magic in the week after it is released or even during a rerun …. The mantra, however, will always be ‘jo bikta hai, woh dikhta hai.’
