The high court’s order is a “suicidal proposition”, cinema owners said. They added that 90% of Marathi movies run to empty halls as “even Marathis don’t come to watch these movies.”
The high court’s order is a “suicidal proposition”, cinema owners said. They added that 90% of Marathi movies run to empty halls as “even Marathis don’t come to watch these movies.”
“The judgement is forcing things on us. Some recent Marathi movies have done well, but that does not mean that all will. We have seen Marathi films running to empty theatres for weeks on end. I once showed the guts to run a Marathi movie only, and I lost everything during that period,” Manoj Desai, executive director of Maratha Mandir, said.
“If we have to run Marathi movies for a whole month, it will mean suicide for four weeks in a row. If this judgment can ensure that Marathis will come in thousands to watch vernacular films, then we don’t have any problem. We are doing business here. Such decisions affect revenue generation. If Marathis are not seeing Marathi films, why should we be forced to screen them?”
PR Mishra of Gemini Cinema said, “It is a myopic verdict. We have no problem in promoting cinemas, but our business too has to be kept in mind. We can’t just continue to make losses and screen movies that don’t generate revenue.”
However, veteran trade analyst Taran Adarsh did not buy the claims of the theatre owners. “Marathi movies have shown lots of improvement in content, and the films have grossed really well in the past one year. Theatres should screen Marathi movies as they are improving. There are Bollywood movies that too run to empty halls. So while blame Marathi films alone? It is a wrong perception that Marathis don’t see Marathi movies. The trade figures speak otherwise,” he said.
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