With the movie-going experience greatly enhanced, and also made more expensive, in the malls, film-makers are faced with a critical challenge. A large number of viewers from the middle class are not prepared to bear the costs unless the movie provides value for money. With blockbusters raising expectations, every movie is expected to deliver a similar bang for the buck. If there is even the smallest hint in the reviews of a deficiency, the crucial section of viewers tends to give it a miss. It is only the rare movie that can hold its own against the big budget blockbusters.
With watching a movie becoming more of an ‘event’ and less of a casual affair, the market will have to respond accordingly. Hollywood, for instance, is focusing strongly on the visual aspect of the film experience so that the quality of viewing on the big screen is enhanced. This is the reason for films revolving around mega-disasters, wars, or science-fiction. The intelligent, more dramatic movies are tending now to be released on the internet for home-viewing. Collectively, the industry globally needs also to ramp up against the AI threat, which can entirely disrupt how movies are made.
Indian cinema is also responding in its own way, but much too slowly. One way would us to make high quality, more intelligent films with low budgets that end up making a good margin of profit, even if it is not in hundreds of crores of rupees. Much of the effort and time needs to be put into pre-production by finding and developing the script, with the actual shooting being wrapped up quickly. Like the great writers, film-makers need to have a close understanding of people’s concerns and address them with the necessary drama, empathy and humour. Attempts are definitely being made on this score, but the numbers have to grow.
It is also important for the film industry to revive as many of the traditional single-screen theatres as possible. It is difficult to raise the prices of tickets beyond a point to pay for this simply because an important demographic would be excluded. Perhaps, a percentage of the profits from the block-busters could be provided as assistance. Owners of such cinema halls must also make an effort to woo back the middle class by providing similar standards of hygiene and amenities as the multiplexes.
The over-reliance on the big stars to pull in the audiences should also be decreased. The real stars of the early Hindi movies used to the numerous character actors that provided depth and body to the movie. This allowed writers to flesh up their scripts. Today, movies are made almost entirely on a couple of actors and the attempt is to expand the scope with using grand locations as the backdrop. The people are not taken in. As on the stage, nothing succeeds like drama in the movies.
