Sunday morning. 10 a.m. When half the world was still luxuriating in the weekend, a hundred-odd eager beavers headed to Escape at Express Avenue a fortnight ago to catch the National Award-winning Thithi . Raam Reddy’s Kannada film, which has bagged laurels internationally too, is being screened this weekend for the 11 a.m. show at PVR Ampa Mall.
An hour later, it was showtime for U-Turn at the same multiplex. Pawan Kumar, who redefined crowd-funding with Lucia , has seen his latest labour of love run for three weeks in Mayajaal on ECR. It’s now playing two shows over the weekend, at 2.45 p.m. and 5.15 p.m.
Suddenly, there’s a happy situation where cinephiles in the city are able to catch well-meaning, well-etched films from across the State’s borders, even if it means only weekend shows. Few can forget the super success of the Malayalam Premam , which ran for more than 250 days in Chennai.
The crowd’s an interesting mix of film lovers, students of cinema, assistant directors and regular citizens, who come in, drawn by the thought of watching a film in their language on the big screen.
Pawan Kumar says he’s happy with his film’s run in Chennai. “After the first couple of shows, the film got shifted to the superior Dolby Atmos screens. The subtitles helped. Films such as these cater to the urban classes, and it’s nice that people in other metros get to watch it,” he says.
Raam Reddy is currently in Mumbai, where the biggies in showbiz have backed his small, beautiful Thithi . Aamir Khan has been tweeting about it and so has Anurag Kashyap, a huge backer of indie films. He’s delighted with the response in Chennai, and other metros. “I guess it would have been peopled by cinephiles. It’s nice that they got a chance to catch it in a theatre,” he says.
Eventually, he says, there will come a time when filmgoers everywhere in the country will have access to quality cinema from across States. “ Thithi has gone far beyond what we dreamt. I just wanted a premiere at an A festival. But, I guess the simple, apolitical, yet deeply philosophical layers have appealed to all.”
Other niche filmmakers are also looking at Chennai as a release centre, even it is just for a show or two. Ravi Kiran, who directed the Kannada rom-com Coma , which has seen a limited release in Karnataka, is also looking for a Chennai listing soon. “We wish to cater to the Kannada-speaking and IT crowd,” he says.
These releases might be drops in an ocean, but five years down the line, this might become the norm, feels Sunil Narvekar, head-distribution, SPI Cinemas. “Some years ago, no one would have imagined Telugu and Malayalam films getting primetime shows. But, they are doing so well now. For now, special shows are the way forward. These are niche films and they need to be marketed well online,” he says.
He feels the filmmakers must approach theatres here for special shows, because these don’t fall under the regular distribution network.
Now, the wait is for Nagraj Manjule’s critically and commercially acclaimed Marathi film Sairat , which lulls you with its teenage love story and magical music before yanking you to dreadful reality.
