Radha Studio makes a comeback with full house

KOLKATA: As promised by chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the Kolkata International Film Festival, the preview theatre of

Chalachchitra Shatabarsha Bhawan

opened for public screening on Friday. All 152 tickets, priced at Rs 30 each, were sold for the first show of Dev-Rukmini’s ‘

Kishmish

’ at 1pm. Dev, who was present at the 1 pm screening, now intends to request the chief minister to implement this model in all the district towns of the state to encourage people to return to the theatres to watch Bengali cinema.

Incidentally, this plot where now stands the centenary building once housed the famous Radha Studio. Countless films from both the silent and talkie era were shot there. These included Tinkari Chakraborty’s ‘Geeta’ (1931) starring himself and Jahar Gangopadhyay, Prafulla Ray’s ‘Sandigddho’ (1932) starring Lalita Debi and Renu Debi, Prafulla Ghosh’s ‘Sree Gouranga’ (1933) starring Kanan Debi, ‘Dakshayagna’ (1934) starring Ahindra Chowdhury, Tulsi Chakraborty, ‘Manmoyee Girls School’ (1935) starring Jwahar Ganguly, Tulsi Chakraborty and Kanan Debi, ‘Janaknandini’ (1939) starring Ahindra Chowdhury and Manoranjan Bhattacharya to ‘Badsha’ (1963) starring Kali Banerjee and Sandhyarani. “The property had changed hands from the Chamarias to Madhab Ghoshal before being rented out to Doordarshan Kendra Kolkata. The latter moved to its current Golf Green premises in 1975. Subsequently, the state government acquired the property and set up its publicity censor office and the film vault,” said Anjan Bose of Arora Films. The theatre has been named

Radha Studio

by the chief minister to connect the old with the new.

Ministers Arup Biswas and Indranil Sen, directors Goutam Ghose and Haranath Chakraborty, star politicians Dev and Soham were among those present at the inauguration of Radha Studio on Friday
The low price ticket for an air conditioned theatre is a big incentive for Bengali cine-buffs. “In this scorching heat, people will not mind paying Rs 30 to sit in an air-conditioned auditorium,” said Dev. The revenue sharing model of government halls is expected to give a fillip to cine distributors/producers. “All government halls in

Bengal

follow the 50% revenue sharing model. After deducting GST, 50% of the net collections go to the government coffers and the rest is shared by the distributors/producers. In comparison to the government halls, the revenue sharing model in other theatres and multiplexes is 50% only during the first week. In the second week, the distributors/producers’ ratio drops to 42.5% in multiplexes and 40% at single screens. The third week sees a further drop to 37.5% in multiplexes and 30% at single screens,” said

Satadeep Saha

, who distributed ‘Kishmish’ that also ran to capacity at Nandan on Friday.

This revenue sharing model is one of the big reasons for the mad rush for film distributors/producers from Bengal to screen movies at the government-run Nandan with a seating capacity of 931. The number of seats at Radha Studio, of course, is less in comparison. The low price ticket might not mean huge collections. But if the Bengali films can manage to draw a good crowd and get three houseful shows daily, the revenue might not be too bad either.




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