BRAVING THE BAD PHASE
FILM business seems to be in shambles these days. The box-office collections have not improved even in the last one month. Every new film released recently has met with a lukewarm response from the public. “We are going through a bad phase. Four new films were released this week but none of them has taken a good initial,” says Haresh Bhatia, general secretary of the Indian Motion Picture Distributors Association. “As it is, a distributor is paying more in acquiring a film without any guarantee of adequate returns at the box-office. Prior to the Dassera festival, there was Shradha period of two weeks. As a result, the whole of September month has gone by without much collections. We are witnessing flops after flops. Now all eyes are on the forthcoming Diwali releases. We are keeping our fingers crossed hoping that the two films, Mohabbatein and Mission Kashmir will revive the film trade and infuse more confidence in the distribution community,” added Haresh Bhatia.

A CONFUSION OF TRENDS
EXPORTER Chandrakant also said the same thing. “Except Fiza, none of the films has done well in the overseas market during the last six months. Actually, there is not much of a difference between the domestic market and overseas one. It is our people and the Asians settled abroad who see our films. It is the socials with good music which have an overseas market but the action films none whatsoever. In the domestic market, social films and love stories have no market; only action films run in the Hindi belt, while the socials run only in the cities and on the electronic media,” Chandrakant said.

Santosh Singh Jain, president of the Central Circuit Cine Association, said that the recently released films have disappointed distributors as none of the films has done well at the box-office.

FOREIGN FARE DOMINATES
UNLIKE in the past, foreign films have started taking out more prints as they are being dubbed in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. For instance, 96 prints of Mission Impossible 2 were taken out for its all India release. Of them 21 prints operated in Tamil Nadu, 18 in Mumbai, 12 in Delhi, 11 in Andhra, 9 in Mysore and 7 in Nizam. As against this only 30 prints of Dacait were taken out.

SHOLAY’S SECOND RUN
It is said that there is no market for re-releases, as most of the old films have been released on cable, satellite and television channels. But Sholay has proved this belief to be wrong. At the Regent cinema in Patna, it has created a record by registering housefull for 24 shows inspite of the fact the film had run at the Ashok theatre in this very same city six months ago. Encouraged by its success, the distributors of the film, Rajshri, are going to revive it not only in CPCI and Rajasthan but also in Nizam and East Punjab.

SPIRIT OF FESTIVITIES
THE distributor tenants in Mumbai’s Naaz Cinema building who celebrated Ganpati and Dassera festivals by installing the idols of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Durga, respectively, on the second floor of the building by decorating the whole area with illuminations are now geared up to celebrate the Diwali festival in the same manner. The building has already been given a facelift. The staircases look clean with no posters.


MSM Desai

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