Malayalam films are staring at a blank screen. The industry, which once inspired a whole generation of movie lovers in India, is losing its white screens one by one. From more than 1,600 movie halls that screened the magic of reels, the number has shrunk to 470, which is a decline of 70% in under two decades. Trade sources tell FE that the crisis could lead to a situation where the number of screens could come down to 70-75 in a few years.
?Running a movie theatre is not a viable proposition. The numbers are declining. Take the case of Kottayam district, which had 73 screens a few years ago. Today, the entire district has only 22 screens, with some municipalities not having a single screen,? says MC Bobby, general secretary of the Film Exhibitors? Federation. ?Video piracy is the single largest threat to the industry. You can download or buy a CD of the movie immediately after its release,? says Bobby, adding, ?By the time the movie comes from the first releasing centre to the hinterlands, copies of the movie are widely available.?
At present, there are 70 first release centres in Kerala. ?Good movies collect well in these centres, but by the time they arrive at the ?B? or ?C? centres, the fancy and excitement of the movie is lost due to proliferation of pirated CDs,? says Sabu Cherian, producer and member of the Kerala Film Producers? Association (KFPA). Theatres are categorised into ?A?, ?B? and ?C? according to their location and facilities. He believes that theatre owners are also to blame for the debacle. ?The associations of theatre owners are very strong in Kerala and they dictate terms. They are against wide release of films and often declare the film holdover on the slightest pretext,? he says. Holdover is the assessment of collections before shifting a movie from a theatre.
?Theatres in Kerala have not changed over the years. The comfort level of the average movie goer has increased. Theatres in most places are dirty, not air-conditioned and not fit for a family outing,? says Siyad Koker, producer and a theatre owner. ?If theatres are upgraded, people will come back and viability will not be a problem,? he adds. Koker points out that multiplex theatres in Kochi are making money and often screening five shows.
Bobby disagrees and argues that multiplexes in the state are cutting down screening on weekdays for want of customers. A small non-air conditioned theatre in the suburbs need eight to nine employees and incurs a cost of R4,000 per day, he says. With theatres facing severe competition from multiplexes, the Federation had also sought government support for renovation of old theatres. The Kerala government has also called for wide release of films to ensure better collection from state theatres.
In 2010, 92 Malayalam films were made, of which only 11 were a success in collection, says Cherian. In the ?90s, nearly 120-125 films were made every year.