Villagers attending the famous Adivasi fair, the Nagoba jatara, at Keslapur in Telangana’s Adilabad district wonder whether the touring talkies which has come to their event after a ten-year gap will return next year.
Although television is a part of village life today with direct-to-home channels beaming down, the big screen still holds some attraction. Inside the talkies, it is no longer the moving reels in massive projectors, but LCD projectors doing the job.
“I love to watch pictures on the big screen,” declared young Mesram Nago Rao of Narnoor mandal headquarters, watching the very first show at the Vijay Bharat talkies.
But the promoter says the touring talkies cannot be sustained much longer as expenditure has increased. “We are not able to hike the ticket price of Rs. 20,” lamented Roddawar Ashok from Pippalkuti in Yavatmal, Maharashtra, who owns two mobile film exhibition units.
Shrinking space
The talkies seat 250 people in a tent serving as a makeshift movie hall, with a screen and a power generator. The audience sits on the ground, sometimes on either side of the screen in the middle of the ‘hall’.
Two decades ago, the touring talkies was the only place people from rural areas got to watch films. Then, the two units which played movies in jataras in Adilabad wound up.
“The jatara once had at least five units playing movies. I stopped a decade ago, but this year I am back, ” Mr. Ashok said.
