One has heard of members of the public creating a furore when they don’t get tickets for their favourite film running in the cinemas. Recently, a teenager fell at the feet of the manager of Roopbani cinema, Purnea when he could not get tickets for Gadar 2 in two consecutive shows in its first week. Having travelled 40 kms. from his village to Purnea town, he begged of the manager to give him a ticket because it was “unthinkable” for him to return home without watching the film for which he had travelled so much. The cinema owner and manager not only obliged by requesting a person, who had come to watch the film for the second time, to vacate his seat, but also did not charge the teenager if only because of his enthusiasm to see the film. However, would you believe that a similar madness — and even more — was noticed for this week’s new release, Panch Kriti Five Elements?
Most of you are apt to ask, “What is Panch Kriti Five Elements after all?” Well, it’s a non-star cast film which opened this week to — obviously — horrendous houses except in some stations of Delhi-U.P. circuit because the investment in the film has reportedly come from a politician belonging to an influential political party of North India. Like in some more cinemas, the film was released in daily 1 show at Maratha Mandir in Bombay, but looking to the dismal collections, the management discontinued it from the second day (Saturday, August 26) onwards to make way for an extra show of Gadar 2 which was going super-strong in its third week too. That did it! Someone connected with the film frantically telephoned the management of Maratha Mandir and begged that the film not be discontinued, asking for it to be screened again from the following day. When the persuasion got too much for the cinema management, it had no alternative but to release it again from today (Sunday, August 27). And what happened thereafter? The persons associated with the film “bought” the tickets for the film and distributed them for free among the lower strata of society in the cinema’s vicinity. The intention, obviously, was to show to the politician how well the film was faring at the ticket counters. Many of those who got free tickets may never have visited a cinema! Or so it seemed. For, after entering the cinema for the ‘free’ show, these free loaders created such a ruckus at the cinema for discontinuing the film yesterday that the management had to ask the police to intervene. They even threatened to damage the cinema property.
Is this the way film business should be conducted? It is very common for exhibitors to do show adjustments for films running in their cinemas, depending upon how the films are faring. In the present case, of course, there was no comparison between Gadar 2 and Panch Kriti Five Elements. People connected with the latter film don’t realise that if this is the attitude, exhibitors will stop allotting shows to such non-star cast films in the first place.
Film business is very different from any and every other business in this world. Therefore, when outsiders enter this trade, there is a chance that they can be misled or they can end up doing things which no film trade person would ever do. What happened today at Maratha Mandir cinema is nothing but outrageous and needs to be condemned by every right-thinking trade person.
Shame!