Where is the Cinema of long run ?

I recall the interview of one of our most noted blockbuster maker of the 80s and 90s called Anil Sharma. Look at his track record of cinema which won purely on content. Shradhanjali his first superhit which redefined female oriented cinema won the box office purely on content . Then came Hukumat which became the biggest hit of 1987 purely on its dialogues and an iconic new villain called Sadashiv Amrapurkar. His biggest content victory was a movie called Elaan-E-Jung in 1989 , this one was released right in between two Amitabh releases Toofan and Jaadugar both of which bombed at the box office but Elaan-E-jung was a rocking hit. In this interview however he lamented how content was going down and as a result the 75 week and 25 week  in theater  movies were no longer happening .He predicted in this interview in the mid 1990s that there will be a day when movies will run for three days and people will say –wah kya picture banayi hai !! . Today his prophecy has come true.

Bollywood now makes shoot and scoot cinema. Cinema that does not live to see Monday when released on Friday.  Race3 and Dhadak both belong to this example in the recent past. Movies which ran huge numbers on weekends and found vacant seats on Monday.

All of it is blamed on piracy on the internet or the dwindling audience interest. We are told the audiences no longer keep movie watching as on option beyond the weekend .Look hard and you will find how weak and shallow this argument is. The audiences will come in numbers if your movie is good. They still love cinema and for all the options of net piracy available to them they will want to watch it on screen.

The recent run of Baahubali proves that good cinema which has some content in it will find audiences. Forget a movie as well mounted,marketed and received as Baahubali. There is a huge heart warming example of a movie called Parmanu. The movie had very limited promotion and call it the myopia of the multiplex chains that this movie had its screens of release reduced every passing week. Yet this movie has clocked more than 50 days on screens across India. The audience came back because they rarely know what went behind the scenes in Pokharan in 1998 and they wanted to know. John Abraham’s production team set up a good story and the audiences came in droves.

Had the multiplexes given some screens that went to duds of overrated superstars this movie would have counted a little more moolah too. The point is simple that audiences will watch what has content.

Bollywood makers also yearn for long term recognition for all their external posturing of bowing down to this shoot and scoot cinema otherwise what is the point behind all these trends that pop up on social media which tell you today is 8^th year of release of  dumbakdumba returns or 4^th year of release of humbadumba goes. These poor makers who think digital strategy will make up for lack of content grossly keep showing their lack of knowledge of their own customer.

Audiences will come back for content wherever they see it . Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Haasil sank without a trace on box office but has become a cult on the internet. Is it not the victory of content and therefore the fact that long time running movies are still a possibility that the makers of the sleeper hit happy bhaag jayegi are now coming with a sequel?

Bollywood’s audience is still around they find a Sahib Biwi and Gangster 3 so pathetically disappointing that they decide to shower all the love on Mission Impossible 6. It is like a disappointed employee walking into a rival company because he gets respect there. Imagine the audiences and run time Sahib Biwi aur Gangster 3 would have counted had it been even half as good as MI6.

Remember Sridevi’s MOM ? that movie clocked runtime in theaters of decent length after it grew on word of mouth purely on its content power. There is a huge small town segment which still has only cinema as its entertainment option. Bollywood has to get its act right and you will see the return of 100 days and silver jubilee cinema.  Looks impossible but is highly plausible.

Published in The Hans India too