Cancellation reimburses for ticket, but is that enough?

When the audience turnout is small, many cinemas do a ‘no show.’ So what happens to the time and money you spent to get there?

A little more than a year ago, when Deccan Herald refreshed its film review section and called it ‘DH Talkies’, we were clear about one thing: the reviewers would get free rein to express their opinions, and not be influenced by multiplex chains and film studios.

This meant our reviewers booked tickets on their own, ran to the theatres in the morning, watched the film, turned in their reviews, and resumed their jobs at the newspaper’s various desks.

There was no question of which show to catch: it had to be first day, first show. This is not bad in itself. There is something exhilarating about being among the first to catch a film.

Most off-beat films have a shelf life of a week, and come with no fanfare: you see no long queues of the kind that accompany the release of a movie like ‘KGF’. Sometimes the theatres screening small films only display posters and flexes of richer productions.

The reviewer is ready to watch these films alone, or perhaps with two or three intellectual-looking people who turn up, or with a coochie-cooing couple that doesn’t care which film is playing.

However, the theatre’s stand is clear: you need a certain number of people for the show to start. The attendants at the box office try to push you towards the pulpier releases for which the seats are already almost full.

What’s worse is that theatres wait till the last moment to cancel the show because they hope some people will rush in at the last moment.

Theatres do not heed arguments about how the ticket was booked online in advance: they give you a refund and you will just have to live with the fact that you won’t get back your time and what you spent to get there.

The ‘intellectuals’ and the reviewer return, resigned; the coochie-cooers are happily ushered inside.

I personally have experienced the issue the most at the INOX Lido, where I do not watch movies anymore.

One time when I rode there, they refunded the ticket amount, but refused to reimburse for the parking ticket.

Their manager once offered an explanation: “The projector bulbs are expensive and can only be used a certain number of times. We lose a full show’s use if we play a film for just one or two people.”

An INOX insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described how the chain handles small numbers.

“If we are opening a booking, that means we are completely prepared. Our house-keeping is ready, our projector and engineers are ready, and so are the food counters.”

Where there are very few viewers, INOX asks them whether they would mind another show or another movie. “If they say they do, we go ahead with the show,” he says.

About the limited-use-bulb excuse, he says, “We don’t gain much by cancelling a show”. Film buffs report such cancellations across the city, the only difference among theatres being the minimum cut-off. Our Hindi movie reviewer Angel Rani has seen the problem at Orion Mall, Banaswadi and Gopalan Mall, Old Madras Road; Kannada reviewer Vivek M V faced this at Sangeeth theatre in Shivajinagar (which reportedly demands a minimum of 10 people) and Savitha theatre; English and Hindi reviewer Ahmed Shariff had the experience at Soul Space Arena, Doddanekkundi. The list does not end there.

When we called up Gopalan Mall, the tele-calling executive made the company policy clear: “If there are less than 10 people, we cancel the show. So, when are you coming?”

This happens to many movie buffs who go to watch a film that isn’t a crowd-puller. Reviewers frequently are witnesses to this.

The larger issue is that theatres do not respect the time of the viewer, the money they spend on travel, and sometimes, the money they spend on parking.

This is not to mention how such cancellations push small and independent filmmakers into crisis. Are theatres not denying such films the little attention they get?