Has streaming killed the cinema star?

With the pandemic and success of OTT, can India's 9,500-plus cinema halls still survive?

Like every second person growing up in India of the 1980s and 90s, Gulshan Devaiah saw movies in theatres—where they are supposed to belong. Best known for Netflix's?Ghost Stories,?Hunterrr?and?Shaitan, Devaiah remembers witnessing the Rajinikanth mania in his hometown of Bengaluru and occasionally in Chennai. The cacophony, coin-throwing and dancing in the aisle was part of the fun, Devaiah vows.?

"I also saw?Hum?on the big screen. There was mayhem when Amitabh Bachchan broke into 'Jumma Chumma'. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life," the actor says. Cinema-going is a communal activity in India. "Theatres make movies magical," he goes on. "You are sitting with 400 people in the darkened room, laughing and crying and sharing a private moment with complete strangers."?

Over-the-top (OTT) platforms may have lured millions of viewers into its orbit in the recent past, but for old-fashioned buffs like Devaiah, cinema halls will always be the real thing. He gushes, "It's like watching a cricket match live at home versus a cricket match live at the stadium. There's a certain atmosphere and energy that's missing with in-home viewing."?

Thousands of screens were shut indefinitely due to the pandemic, leading to huge losses. Image: Getty

Lights, camera, no action!

According to 2019-20 stats, India has 6,327 single screens and 3,200 multiplexes against China's 75,000 and the US's 45,000. The cut-throat box-office business depends on the crazed fandom of movie-mad Indians like Devaiah. But the COVID-19 lockdowns have battered showbiz in the last two years, forcing even a market leader like PVR's Ajay Bijli to demand a rescue package from the government. One distressed distributor described the pandemic as "a horror movie" for the industry.?

Almost overnight, thousands of screens were shut indefinitely. While producers, exhibitors and distributors were counting their losses (reportedly at ?5,000 crore), the masses were deprived of the vicarious pleasure of seeing their favourite heartthrobs on celluloid. PVR reported a consolidated net loss of ?289.12 crore in 2021. A string of mega-wattage Bollywood entertainers, which included the Amitabh Bachchan comedy?Gulabo Sitabo, Salman Khan's?Antim: The Final Truth, Akshay Kumar-led?Sooryavanshi?and Ranveer Singh-starrer?83, had to continuously postpone their release dates due to COVID-19 imposed restrictions. Finally, when some of them did manage a theatrical opening, they were far from being the kind of money-spinners that their makers had hoped for. Though critically acclaimed,?83?fared worse, raking in ?186 crore against its whopping ?270 crore budget.

Gangubai Kathiawadi, which releases today, is expected to bring in big business for theatres

Some observers point out that theatres in India were bleeding even before the pandemic hit. OTT is just one of the culprits for it. Others include high ticket-and-popcorn prices and uninspiring content. The COVID-19 curbs from April 2020 onwards merely became an unexpected catalyst for a paradigm shift towards all-things-digital. Stuck at home, audiences were left with few choices—foremost of which was to turn themselves into compulsive couch potatoes by streaming movies and shows from an ever-expanding catalogue rolled out by Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney + Hotstar, SonyLIV and Zee5, among others. Valued at $1.1bn today, the streaming services are poised to touch revenues of $15bn by 2030.?

To fuel the streaming boom and maintain a steady flow of good content, the OTT outlets have splurged millions in acquiring top Bollywood films, attracting the best talent from Hindi and regional cinema and bankrolling their own original programming to feed the 'binge culture'. Cheaper Internet has meant this content reaches the mobile and tablet screens of over 600 million smartphone users and 210 million TV-owning viewers. In the age of WFH and 'Flix and Chill', as more and more audiences burn up their broadbands and data packages on internet browsing, the moot question remains whether we are seeing the death of cinema halls.?

Actor Gulshan Devaiah says theatres make movies magical

Will OTT kill theatre?

"Don't write off the theatres yet," insists Ketan Maru of Shemaroo Entertainment Limited, who firmly believes that in today's high inflation era, cinema remains the most cost-effective form of recreational activity. "Many unsuccessful attempts have been made in the past to write the obituary of theatres. When VHS and DVDs came, everyone said nobody would go to the big screens anymore. After multiplexes, people sounded the death knell for single screens. If you look at the history of theatres, you will realise that they have had to reinvent themselves every ten years, and they have always succeeded in overcoming the challenges," Maru explains. "For example, notice how cinematic sounds have diversified. From stereophonic sound in the 1970s to Dolby Atmos, we have evolved so much. Today we have 4k picture quality and 3D effects. The theatrical experience simply keeps getting better."??

It has not gone unnoticed that post the reopening of theatres, South Indian cinema and their "rooted storytelling and slick production values" have continued to put a bum on seats. Allu Arjun's record-smashing, barrier-breaking?Pushpa: The Rise?is a prime example. Maru concedes that Bollywood will now be under constant pressure to put up a good show in the face of stiff competition from more discerning content providers from South India, a region where box-office tickets still sell in the millions thanks to a voracious audience and strong fan culture. Though Bollywood is confident of making a comeback this year with an eagerly-anticipated line-up (Gangubai Kathiawadi, Laal Singh Chaddhaand?Brahmāstra), S S Rajamouli's Telugu behemoth?RRR?due in April seems to have grabbed everyone's attention.

Film critic Aseem Chhabra spent his childhood years watching Friday releases in theatres

"During the pandemic, most people (including me) have discovered many aspects of Indian cinema, especially Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu movies. OTT is full of them, and they are rather well-made," admits film critic Aseem Chhabra, a Delhi boy who has spent his boyhood years watching Friday releases in art-deco style theatres like Golcha and later on, in Archana and Chanakya.?

During our conversation, he throws long-buried expressions like 'first-day-first-show', 'advance booking' and 'house-full' with glee, concepts Zoomers and Alphas might find alien. Citing the Kannada gangsta rap?Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana?as one of his favourite recent films, he says, laughing, "I loved that movie, but I wasn't satisfied with a home viewing. So, I literally travelled to a theatre in Noida in the middle of a busy week to enjoy it on the big screen!"