The trend started many years ago. Theatre owners began to wash their hands of old theatres, which soon began being converted en masse into marriage halls, apartment complexes, malls or office spaces. This resulted in a rapid reduction in the number of screens.
With the film industry growing rapidly over the last decade, the theatre owners, who decided to slug it out, seem to be making more money by investing in the movie business than by getting out of it.
“For the number of films we are making in Tamil Nadu, the city needs more screens, not less. The problem is that we are not adding to the number of screens quickly. China, for instance, has added 5000 screens in the last 2 years making its box-office the second biggest in the world after United States of America,” says Senthil Kumar, co-founder of Real Image Technologies.
Indeed, several theatres, which have tried to evolve and adapt to the demands of new-age film fan, have benefitted from upgrading technology and completely renovating facilities. “Even we thought of selling out until we realised that the secret lies in renovating the facilities and upgrading the technology. I upgraded the smaller screen to a 3-D one,” says Rakesh Gowthaman, MD of Vettri Theatres.
He points out that almost all theatres in and around Chromepet area are doing reasonably well because they chose to renovate and improve facilities. “Apart from Vettri Cinemas, theatres such as Varadaraja and Janatha are doing well after renovation. In fact, after a very long time, Janatha theatre in Pallavaram has seen houseful shows for Baahubali,” he says adding, “Five years ago, the situation was grim. But, now with so many big releases, it is a good time to be in the theatre business.”
