The screen issue popped up again this week with the makers of Manto feeling that there is some mafia in the industry which does not allow films outside the mainstream ones to release properly but this is far from the truth. Its not the first time this has happened and these complaints mainly come from these film makers who call themselves Indie filmmakers.
It has been happening for a long time with an endless list from the likes of Ships Of Theseus (2013), Aligarh (2016), Manto (2018) and many others where the makers instead of accepting that they have made rank bad cinema which actually no one wants to watch complain about the release of their respective films.
Its not just these films but many more and they are so bad that the audience does not even have to see the trailer, just the name of the film is bad enough. Who will watch a film called Ships Of Theseus or Manto in India and you need not be Einstein to answer that question and the answer is hardly anyone and it is reflected in the footfalls of these films.
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Manto was the release last week so this is the best example to point out right now that the problem is not lack of screens but bad cinema. This film was released on 400 screens apprx across India and the makers feel this is too less while we would say its far too much.
The collections itself tell that the screens are far too much. The way it works is that exhibitors want to the best they can for their properties and that is not to say some decisions they make can be wrong. A prime example being last year when they gave around 1700 screens to a poor film like Secret Supestar against a sure shot like Golmaal Again on a festive period like Diwali. The question here was who will watch Secret Superstar against a Golmaal Again in Diwali week even though it had Aamir Khan and the footfalls basically answered the question.
But that decision was pre release and post release the equations changed as the results were clear with Golmaal Again leaving Secret Superstar far behind despite multiplexes ridiculously sharing screens. The reason why the Golmaal and Secret Superstar clash has come here is because the exhibitor decisions pre release and post release. Pre release it is possible to go wrong but not post release as its about getting the best returns and whichever film does then that will get the showcasing.
If Manto was bringing the audience then its showcasing would have gone up depending on how well it performed. But when the audience counts are in single figures in many places how is it possible that there will be a bigger audience with more screens. In fact if the film had released on 100 screens like it should have then it would have got better audience counts, probably not good enough to get more screens as its such a bad film but at least exhibitors would have wasted less shows on this film.
Before all these filmmakers make comments about getting lack of screens they should know if your film brings in the audience then you will get more screens. A film can start with 50 screens but if you are filling them up then you will get more and then could go anywhere in terms of screen count as long as the audience is there. No exhibitor is going to let go a film which is bringing in the audience pass by, as there are so few of these.
There was a time when there were only those big singles screens with 1000 seaters and at that time there was those NFDC films (more popular word is Art Film) which were released and they would release on one show forget about the whole screen. The ones which had an audience will eventually branch out to another show in another screen and some may even go on get a full theater if they were good enough.
Its the same story today with difference being what used to happen over weeks with the film getting more screen time will happen in a matter of days now, but the film has to be good. The reason why these Manto's, Aligarh's, Love Sonia's, Gala Guleiyan cant improve their screen count is because the screen count in the first place is too much against how much audience there is out there for these films.
These sort of films basically need a special chain of theaters to be showcased which happens in many countries where the media and so called cinema lovers says the masterpieces show in these theaters but the general public has the thinking that the crap shows in these chains. But its done knowing the demand so it works for all. In India these films also need a chain where only these types show though its not going to happen as it needs an investment and it will only a fool makes the investment as the problem in India is practically zero demand.
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