Too many releases, too few takers

With the arrival of the so-called ‘new wave of cinema’ in Mollywood, a pretty picture has been painted, making it seem like the audience is thronging theatres and that the releases are flourishing well. While it’s true that the industry has seen an increase in the number of films being released when compared to the last few years, experts point out that there’s nothing to smile about.Reason? the number of people turning up at theatres to watch films is hitting an all-time low.
Drop in footfalls
Kerala Film Chamber general secretary, Anil V Thomas, says that a recent study by the Chamber, which compares the festival releases in the first half of 2012 to those in 2013, is a clear indicator of the drop in numbers. “The cumulative share of last year’s festival releases during the Vishu and summer vacation season raked in `30 crore. In comparison, the releases in 2013 during the same season managed to reached just about `15 crore,” says Anil, adding that there’s been a drastic drop in footfalls at theatres over the years. He also points out that while the turnout is positive in the main centres due to multiplexes, the B and C class theatres are on the verge of shutting down because there are no audiences.
Many releases, few theatres
With the half year mark nearing, the Malayalam film industry has already seen 88 releases — a huge surge, when compared to 132 in the entire 2012. However, only 12 of these have gone on to become hits. These include Sound Thoma, Romans, Amen, Mumbai Police, Neram, Bharya Athra Pora and Lal Jr’s Honey bee. senior producer G Suresh Kumar admits that this is a no-win situation for the entire industry. While he doesn’t expect to see the same rush of releases in the latter half of 2013, the sad part is that this deluge of releases in the first half did not benefit anyone either. Why? The smaller films struggled to find theatres to play in while the bigger movies suffered because they didn’t get all four shows for as many weeks as they would have liked. “The maximum life of a hit movie has been shortened to just 60 days. If that wasn’t bad enough, this year’s 88 releases saw some films that didn’t run for more than three days,” says Suresh.
The irony of satellite rights
The huge number of film releases this year could be attributed to the upswing in prices for satellite rights. By selling the telecast rights to various TV channels, even small films fetched enough money to recover the making cost, if it ran for at least two weeks. Ironically though, the unprecedented number of releases this year seems to have had a negative effect on this trend as well. “While superstar movies still fetch good money, the television companies now pick up small films only if they have released in theatres. And most often, small films don’t get theatres to run, so they are stuck in a rather strange situation,” says producer Suresh. Anil informs us that there are about 75 films — both released and yet-to-be released — that are struggling to find takers for their satellite rights.
Star power ain’t enough
Anil says, “Earlier, cinema was a mass entertainment medium and movies of stars like Mammootty and Mohanlal were crowd pullers throughout the state. But if you analyse the data from the theatres across Kerala, you would find that such an impact is not there anymore,” he says.
DIP IN PROFITS
While Kerala Film Chamber expects close to 170 films to be released by the end of this year with an average expenditure of around `330 crores, industry insiders say that this is “not a hopeful trend.” “Some of the films released have not played for more than three days in theatres. In fact, since too many movies are releasing, the producers, distributors and film exhibitors are not profiting; the only people making money are the artistes and technicians,” says Anil. Respite doesn’t seem to be anywhere round the corner though. with the monsoon season currently on and the month of Ramadhan coming up, the industry will once again see low turnout at theatres. For now, all hopes are pinned on Eid and Onam.