It’s hot and humid outside Vettri Theatres, Chromepet, but the crowd seems content about catching the matinee show. The scenes inside the theatre, too, are pleasantly surprising: a packed audience is hooting and whistling for the title card! What’s amusing is that they aren’t rooting for their favourite Kollywood star, but for a blue-skinned creature from a universe far away. The movie is Avatar .
A regular cine-goer, Sai Ramakrishnan D missed Avatar when it released in 2009. A decade later, Sai travelled from Guduvanchery to the theatre to catch the film. “I generally watch all movies in theatres. This is the first time I saw Avatar and I must say, it was stunning,” says Sai, one among many film buffs who queued up for the screening.
Earlier in February, Vettri Theatres came up with an initiative called the ‘Throwback’ series — something similar to what Jazz Cinemas has been doing for close to two years now, with their ‘PlayBack’ option — that allows fans to revisit and relive their movie-watching experiences.
“It started as a personal motive since we wanted to advertise our RGB laser projection, which has the ability to enhance visual quality. The idea was to screen films that people may have missed or watched in a poor format, even though these movies were not badly made,” says Rakesh Gowthaman, managing director, Vettri Theatres. Rakesh admits that he was initially testing the waters by screening popular English films such as Gravity , Mad Max: Fury Road and Interstellar . But the reception for The Dark Knight reaffirmed his faith in Throwback, which he says, is now being considered as a feasible option for the longer haul.
“We hand-picked (Hollywood) films that had a good mix of colour and sound. When TheDark Knight released, it was playing at Sathyam Cinemas, which had digital projection then. Since most theatres had reel projections, people may not have experienced the digital version,” he says, adding, “Once we started the ‘Throwback’ series, it snowballed into something else, as we had requests from people asking to screen Tamil films.” Most of these requests were for classic Rajinikanth or Kamal Haasan films.
However, Rakesh says that he consciously stayed away from screening commercial films. For him, it was a matter of the visual experience, and obviously, the ‘cult’ factor. “When Pudhupettai released, it incurred a loss for us. But now, the response was so good that we had to do multiple screenings,” he smiles.
- With Avengers: Endgame around the corner, Vettri Theatres is doing a Marvel marathon, where they will be screening seven films from the MCU franchise. Billa and Theri are also some of the films that are in the pipeline. There are also plans to screen Aaranya Kaandam .
- GK Cinemas, on the other hand, will be playing Paruthiveeran , Billa and Karnan in their upcoming screenings.
How does it work?
Every screening, according to Rakesh, is scheduled only after getting the consent of the respective producers. So, do they pay a sum of money to acquire the theatrical rights again? “It depends. For Pudhupettai , we bought the rights on a minimum guarantee basis. Since we have a very good relationship with Warner Bros, they were supportive of the idea.” Though the initiative is a blessing in disguise for film buffs and cinema lovers, Rakesh says that not all producers were willing to give their films for re-release. “We wanted to screen Anbe Sivam because the digitally remastered version is yet to release. The only problem was that the sound wasn’t mixed properly. So, the producers said they will get back to us. Similarly, we approached AM Rathnam for Yennai Arindhaal .” Considering that February and March have “always been dull months in Tamil cinema”, the ‘Throwback’ series intends to keep the juices flowing. Even from a business perspective, Rakesh feels that he’s able to generate more footfalls and better revenue than most of the films that released this season. “For instance, the revenue for Pudhupettai was far better than some of the recently-released films.”
For the love of Kodambakkam
GK Cinemas, a popular cineplex in Porur, has also joined the bandwagon, hosting successive screenings every week. Their focus, though, is primarily on Tamil cinema. “We started with Aayirathil Oruvan , which had a tremendous response from fans... so much so that people have been requesting for a second show. We also screened Pudhupettai for the second time after two years,” says Ruban Mathivanan, managing director, GK Cinemas. Would theatre owners prefer re-releasing old films than opting for a smaller film with a lesser-known actor? “We cannot generalise, no? There have been instances where a small film went on to become a cult. So, playback can never be a replacement. This is just an option.”
- Based on the huge reception for Aayirathil Oruvan at the Throwback series, its producer R Ravindran stated that he’s planning to re-release the film throughout Tamil Nadu.
