Exhibitors are panicking even though Drishyam 2 and then Avatar: The Way Of Water have done exceedingly well in the recent past. The films are running even now in several cinemas. The unbelievably poor collections of Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus seem to have shaken the confidence of the exhibition sector.
There are a few filmmakers whom cinema wallahs swear by. Rohit Shetty, obviously, is one of them. With a phenomenal track record like his, it is not surprising that exhibitors should repose so much faith in Shetty and expect his films to bring a smile to their faces. After all, it was the same Rohit Shetty who had pulled the industry out of the woods with his Sooryavanshi when it was trying to come on track post-lockdown.
Frankly, anybody’s judgement can go wrong. Rohit Shetty has erred badly with Cirkus. For him, it was a case of failing to live up to the sky-high expectations, but for the exhibition community, it’s been a rude shock, more so because the footfalls which their cinemas witness during Christmas and New Year remained a dream for them in 2022. Perhaps, their dejection may have been lesser had Cirkus not come in the Christmas week. Festive weeks automatically make expectations soar to the skies because it is assumed that if a producer has chosen a festive week for his film’s release, it must be a box-office bonanza. But, frankly, Cirkus was no different from the other festive releases of 2022. Ram Setu and Thank God were both released in the Diwali week of last year and rather than being Diwali box-office bonanzas, they proved to be Diwali disappointments. Laal Singh Chaddha and Raksha Bandhan greatly diluted the fun associated with the festival of Raksha Bandhan, at least in the film trade when they were pronounced debacles right on the day of the festival, which happened to be the day when both the box-office bombs released. Why, even Eid was no different, with both the festive releases — Runway 34 and Heropanti 2 — crash-landing.
But, as they say, fikr not. The industry will turn the corner — soon! And just what gives me the confidence to say so? Several factors, actually!
Firstly, the industry’s creative people are an intelligent lot. They’ve learnt the lessons which the flops of 2022 have taught them. They’ve understood that audience tastes have changed dramatically during the two lockdown years, that their expectations have soared high. They’ve comprehended that half-baked content and half-hearted attempts to entertain will not work. So, obviously, they are working very hard now to make better cinema, entertaining cinema and films that will attract the audience to the theatres. Exhibitors need to be reassured that if the creative minds were not smart, they wouldn’t have sustained all these years. They are recalibrating, and that’s taking some time. But they will bounce back and how!!
Secondly, the creative minds in the production sector have understood from the success of films like Kantara and Karthikeya 2 — both dubbed — that even without star names, engaging content is working at the box-office. A natural corollary of this learning is that entertaining content will work much more with star names. If some top star-cast films have bombed in the recent past, it doesn’t mean that people don’t want to see those stars. It only means that people don’t want to see sub-standard content even if that’s made with A-list stars of the industry. Now imagine what would happen if engaging entertainers are made with top stars and superstars! The business of such films will be huge!!
Thirdly, there is business. It’s not as if people don’t want to come to the cinemas. If that were true, why would Drishyam 2 net more than Rs. 225 crore at the ticket windows or why would Avatar: The Way Of Water be approaching the Rs. 350-crore mark in just three weeks? OTT platforms and content thereon are definitely posing tough competition to cinemas, but the same was true of satellite TV channels when they were mushrooming in India. If the Hindi film industry could surmount that opposition and co-exist with the hundreds of satellite TV channels, there’s simply no reason why it can’t co-exist with digital platforms.
So, all you exhibitors, smile! House-full boards and heavy footfalls in cinemas will once again be a reality — soon. The circus may have gone out of fashion, cinema won’t. You can rest assured!