Rains Add to Woes of Theatre Owners

"Rain, rain go away" is a refrain most cinema theatres in Hyderabad are humming more than everybody else, as dark clouds, overcast skies and intermittent rains are threatening their already embattled struggle for survival.

Despite release of big banner films such as "Dil Chahta Hai" and "Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke" from Bollywood, "Nuvve Nenu" and "Wife" from Tollywood, and "Pearl Harbor" from Hollywood, and earlier releases such as Hindi movies "Yaadein," "Lagaan" and "Gadar," business of the theatres in the twin cities is down by anywhere up to 75 percent.

So much so that one of the Hindi film screening theatres, Vimal has even resorted to reducing the number of seats in the hall to cut costs in terms of paying of slab taxes.

"We have cut down the number of seats from 1,245 to 1,077 since Friday, when we began screening of "Dil Chahta Hai." The initial enthusiastic response, drawing on Aamir Khan's success in "Lagaan," has faded and the theatre is making only 50 per cent of its full house revenues of Rs 15,000 per show," says manager R J Mohan Rao. The same is the case with morning show, currently screening "Badal," starring Bobby Deol.

"What is the point of running half empty halls and paying higher slab taxes?" Currently, the government charges 23 to 24 per cent for theatres screening Hindi and English movies, and six to 12 per cent for those putting up Telugu movies.

Even our sister concern Sobhana theatre, running Telugu movie "Wife," is only getting 40 per cent crowds, though short budget films were doing well last year and early this year, he adds.

Even a popular theatre Anand, which screens Hollywood movies, and currently playing "Exit Wounds" starring Steven Seagal, is currently doing only 50 per cent of business. The 908-seat theatre, is garnering only 50 per cent of the approximate Rs 18,000 it makes per show when full house. Even "Lagaan" during morning shows is getting good response only on weekends, falling to 50 per cent on weekdays, says an office bearer.

T Subbirami Reddy-owned Maheshwari, another theatre playing "Lagaan," is also managing to draw crowds and making 80 per cent collections of the average full house Rs 75,000 per day for regular shows. But the morning show, currently "Fire" starring Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, is failing to fire the cash registers, managing only Rs 5,000 to 6,000 as against a full house collection of Rs 25,000 for that show, says manager I Purna Chandra Rao.

But, cousin Parmeshwari, screening "Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat," starring Sunil Shetty, Aftab Shivdasani, Monica Bedi, is faring worse. The show is barely managing to fetch even 25 per cent of earnings at Rs 4000 to 6,000 per show. Same is the case with morning show of "Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai" starring Kareena Kapoor and Tushar Kapoor.

Even one of the highly popular theatres built by NTR, Ramakrishna 35 mm is failing to enthuse crowds in the dull weather, despite a Madhuri Dixit, Preity Zinta and Ajay Devgan starrer. According to manager Ram Kumar, 70 per cent of the business has suffered, with the theatre making Rs 30,000 per day, as against a full house average of Rs 73,000 per day. Even Hrithik Roshan's "Yaadein" during morning shows is doing only 25 per cent at Rs 5,000.

And to woo theatre goers and promote sales, an online booking company is going all out to integrate the online ticket booking model to offline distribution as well.

"Cinema is for the aam janta or the masses, so online booking needs to be integrated with offline," said Raj B Tadla, managing director of Beyond Basiks Infotech, operating EasymoviesIndia, and promoter of a couple of theatres.

For this, the company has tied up with 100 ticket selling points (TSPs), which include cyber cafes, reputed bakery chains, STD/ISD PCOs, Airtel connects and SMS, and is in talks with a supermarket chain, to offer the facility of booking movie tickets.

Under the scheme, EasymoviesIndia, which intends to operate from at least 500 to 700 TSPs soon in the city, is giving out coupons to these networked points, which can be purchased by the cine goer and redeemed at the theatre.

The company, which networked with about 20 theatres in the city and is in talks to rope in 20-30 more theatres, intends to scale up the model to sell all categories of tickets from the current high class bookings.