Remember how during the Coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, negative minds and souls worked overtime on social media platforms to write the obituary of the Hindi film industry in general and the exhibition sector in particular? These frustrated people reasoned that after the lockdowns, people would not be interested in watching films on the big screen because they had gotten habituated to consuming content on the small screen, in the comforts of their homes. They also wrongly assumed that the propaganda against Bollywood stars during the investigations into the Sushant Singh Rajput death case would work against Bollywood films. That nobody has yet been indicted in the actor’s suicide case is another story altogether.
Sooryavanshi proved the spreaders of negativity completely wrong. But they continued their tirade against Bollywood films and stars. They kept harping on their theory that cinemas would have to shut down in view of declining footfalls. But as films started clicking at the fag end of last year and early this year, those voices began to fade. Film Information was the only voice which, all through the lockdowns, kept insisting that the Hindi film trade would see box-office collections post-lockdown of the kind never witnessed before. And that has happened — and continues to happen.
Have you heard of round-the-clock shows of a film for almost 48 hours? Well, that’s exactly what happened at Raj Imperial Inox multiplex in Surat this week for K.G.F. Chapter 2. Believe it or better still, slap some of those who tarnished the reputation of Bollywood and cinemas in 2020 and 2021 but most of these round-the-clock shows recorded full houses in all the six auditoria. Shows began as early as 5.15 a.m. on Saturday in the multiplex and went on continuously till around 3.30 a.m. on Monday morning! And mind you, all the auditoria were screening the same film without a break!! In all, around 56 shows of the Yash starrer were conducted on Saturday and Sunday alone. On the opening day, Chander Vijay, owner of the multiplex, started the shows of the K.G.F. sequel around 4 a.m. Actually, looking to the advance booking for the first day, Chander Vijay kept adding a show before the earliest show till then, and this went on till the first show on Thursday (April 14) began around 4 a.m.! This is just an example. Other cinemas in Surat likewise conducted extra shows which started early morning and ended late night. Not just in Surat, exhibitors across the nation have minted money by conducting additional shows, which they hadn’t dreamed of thus far.
So much for the comments of all those who predicted doomsday for Bollywood and the cinema sector by vomiting their innermost ‘fantasies’ on social media.