Thirty odd people, all dressed in whites and khakis, turned heads at the movie hall. They had come to watch actor Surya’s cop film Singham III . They dressed in red for Maniratnam’s movie OK Kanmani. And nearly 90 of them including 30 children, dressed in blue to catch the kids’ movie Home .
These colour co-ordinated movie buffs are members of Kovai Cinema Blitz (KCB), a closed group on Facebook. “We started wearing similar coloured clothes for the novelty of it. When we came to watch the Dhanush-starrer Maari, the men wore silk dhoties and shirts and the women came in silk sarees. Now, people instantly recognise us the moment we walk in to movie hall,” laughs Anuraag Maheshwary, who founded the group along with Kavita Ramesh. They met on Facebook and during one of their meetings over coffee, discovered their mutual love for cinema. “We watch movies back-to-back. Then, we came up with an idea. Why not bring back the culture of watching movies in theatres with family and friends? And so began the Kovai Cinema Blitz. We also wanted to raise our voice against piracy, and downloading new movies on the Net illegally,” says Kavitha Ramesh, a home-maker who also works from home in digital marketing.
The members discuss movies, post reviews, and share info on the latest cinema news. They hold contests where free movie tickets are given away as prizes. “We are crazy about films and curious to learn more about how the film industry works,” says Anurag. After every movie, they discuss the movie right there at the movie hall. “We don’t criticise any movie. A lot of hard work goes into it. It’s a big team work. We appreciate the nuances of cinematography, direction, music…we treat movies as entertainment. We don’t look for flaws,” says Kavitha.
The group is one big family with members ranging from 18-year-olds to 65-year-olds. They watch movies in all South Indian languages as well as Hindi. “People who were strangers are now friends for life. The Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi speakers in our group help us appreciate those language films better. Every week, we watch two to three movies. We enjoyed watching some of the recent Telugu movies like Fidaa , ArjunReddy , Spyder and a few Malayalam ones like Premam , Charlie , PuliMurugan and VelipadintePusthakam .”
KCB also put together a short film festival that showcased short films made in Coimbatore. The films were about several social issues, murder mysteries and more. One of them titled 3G put the spotlight on equal rights for transgenders. “Most of the films were made by amateurs and featured first-time actors, all from Coimbatore. We want to give a platform to promote short films made here. We invited film distributors and producers who recognised the work of some the newcomers and have signed them up for big projects,” explains Anuraag.
Recently, they took a group of children from an orphanage to watch the award-winning children’s film Kaaka Muttai. “It’s a first time experience for the kids to watch a film at the mall. We also treated them to pizza after the film, as the film is about two children wanting to taste the pizza,” says Anuraag.
They also plan to treat the children to Bhel Poori Express, a short film made by Balumani R from Coimbatore which has won three awards in the foreign film category at LIUFF International film festival in Lebanon. It has been shot extensively in Coimbatore and revolves around the friendship of two young girls, one rich and the other poor played by Theajaashree and Blessy from Coimbatore. A number of film stars connect with the group members whenever they stop by Coimbatore. “We had an interactive session with director Karthik Subbraj and actor Bobby Simha while they were promoting Aviyal . Actor Aadhi and Actress Nikki Galrani spoke to our members when they were promoting Yagavarayinum Naa Kaakka . Actor Ajmal invited us to Tirupur when he was shooting there for a movie.”
When a Rajinikanth or Shah Rukh Khan film releases, it’s big celebration time. There are members who are always there for movies of big stars like Rajnikanth, Ajith and Vijay. Kavitha Ramesh says they also love director Shankar’s films. “We went in big groups to watch Robot and i . We want to host chat sessions with film technicians and film makers regularly.”
The members have a request. They want theatres to give priority to the group while bulk booking the tickets for first day first show. Says Anuraag, “We would love to watch movies on first day but it is difficult to book tickets for a big group. It will be great if multiplexes give priority to social media groups who are passionate about movies.”
Starry nights
KCB’s annual get together is a starry affair with a musical night and celebrities from the film industry as guests. During the first anniversary celebration, they also released a short movie called Drum where the entire cast and crew are from Coimbatore
Other celebrities like artist Ilyas from Mannarkad in Kerala who sketches portraits while singing, and actors Shyam Ganesh, Sherin and Ashok Selvan have also been there
The team has organised a movie marathon where they played Hollywood classics at a farmhouse in open air theatre style
Kovai Cine Blitz has been active for over three years and has 10,000 plus members
