The juggernaut called Baahubali 2: The Conclusion has made an unlikely hero of Balwinder Singh in Assam. The owner of Vandana Cinema near Guwahati Refinery in Noonmati has become the darling of local filmmakers and film lovers. All because he continued to retain one show a day of the latest Assamese, crowd-funded hit, Local Kung Fu 2 (LKF2), in its second week, when every cinema hall in the State had pulled it off to leave the field open for the S.S. Rajamouli epic.
For Singh, born and brought up in Assam, it was the least he could do for LKF2. He did the same when the first part of this martial arts cult comedy, Local Kung Fu , got assailed back in 2013 by the Hindi film Besharam . “After a long while, a film seemed set to revive the fortunes of the local film industry,” he said over phone.
This, however, is not about Singh or the theatre that his father, a CPWD contractor, built in the early 70s. It is about an intriguing power dynamic in which what essentially started off as a Telugu language franchise has rightfully amassed countrywide appeal on the one hand but, on the other hand, has also trampled other vulnerable, ‘regional’, small fries. So you have the ₹250-crore Tollywood production cocking a snook not just at Big Daddy Bollywood but also surging past the Emma Watson-Tom Hanks starrer The Circle at the U.S. box office. However, in Assam (and West Bengal), it has turned into a monster shark (quite like Bollywood and Hollywood) gobbling away the small fish, like the ₹30-lakh LKF2.
Social media is where you witness the disgruntlement. It’s also where the debate on protectionism versus free market has been coming into sharp relief. Why should you stop a blockbuster’s march if that’s what people are keen to watch? The market, after all, only knows the survival of the fittest.
Then, there is the “monopolies and restrictive trade practices” idea. Couldn’t even a few shows be spared for an indie when the blockbuster was reportedly releasing across a gargantuan 6,500 screens nationwide? That too when LKF2 had been faring rather well. Released in 43 screens in Assam on April 19, it is reported to have collected ₹13.85 lakh in the first week, quite a big loot for an Assamese indie.
Similar discontent has been brewing in West Bengal with national award winner Bishorjan at the receiving end, prompting its director, Kaushik Ganguly to tweet: “They are Bahubalis & we are Bengalis. They rule & we surrender! But for how long? Bishorjan losing theatres and shows in its own state!”
After much persuasion, and after the crucial first weekend, LKF 2 was granted a few more shows—three in Guwahati and one each in Tinsukhia and Dibrugarh—but the writing is clearly on the wall. Already, another local film, Monjul Baruah’s debut Antareen: Quest Of Sanctuary, is waiting anxiously to see what shows it will be allotted.
Baahubali 2 is not the first biggie to have swept away local films. But it has brought to head an unrest that’s been brewing for long. Most distribution and exhibition chains in Assam have head offices outside the state—in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru—and are said to be “remote controlled”. These “outsiders” are ignorant of Assamese culture and audiences, and force Hindi and English films on theatre owners, claim local film professionals. Says Durlov Baruah, producer of LKF2: “Their decisions are not for art but commerce.”
Meanwhile, Assam still doesn’t have a well defined, comprehensive film policy in place. Some measures have been brought in, of late, by the government. There have been incentives offered for the construction of theatres and producers are getting a better share of the earnings from ticket sales.
Assamese filmmakers are now demanding protective mechanisms along the lines of Maharashtra, where multiplexes have to reserve at least one show a day for Marathi films. The other model is the quota system in South Korea that limits the number of foreign films every year. On the face of it, Marathi and South Korean cinema appear to have become powerhouses under these protective measures.
But there is a flip side too. Doesn’t it go against the ideals of an open market and the freedom of choice of viewers?
The debate has only just begun.
The writer is Associate Editor-Cinema with The Hindu in Mumbai.
