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HIMACHAL PRADESH NATIONAL
LAW UNIVERSITY, SHIMLA
Research Paper of Sociology
“ CINEMA HALLS AND SOCIOLOGICAL ISSUES
WITH REFERANCE TO CONTEMPORARY INDIA ”
FOURTH SEMESTER
Submitted to - Dr. Amit Chaturvedi
Submitted by- Shivam Tiwari
Roll No. - 14
Acknowledgement
It is not possible to prepare a project report without the assistance and
encouragement of other people. This one is certainly no exception. I am using
this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who supported me
throughout the course of this assignment. I am thankful for their aspiring
guidance, invaluably constructive criticism and friendly advice during the
assignment work. I am sincerely grateful to them for sharing their truthful and
illuminating views on a number of issues related to the project. I would like to
express my express my special gratitude to Prof. (Dr.) Nistha Jaswal and
Assistant Professors Dr. Amit Chaturvedi who gave me the golden
opportunity to do this wonderful project, which also helped me in doing a lot of
Research and I came to know about so many new things for which I am
indebted to them from the core of my heart. I also acknowledge with a deep
sense of reverence, my gratitude towards my parents and member of my family,
because of whom I have managed to complete this assignment on time and who
have always supported me morally. At least, my gratitude goes to all of my
friends who directly or indirectly helped me to complete this assignment. Any
omission in this brief acknowledgement does not mean lack of gratitude.
the audience with comfortable surroundings”. Watching cinema had become a complex experience which was related to the growing urbanity of early 20th Century. The show- timings of these picture palaces, (these were also sometimes called picture palaces as with their counterparts in America) were flexible in accordance with the urban lifestyle of being. They began to have more varied ticketing system. With the coming of the World War, the shows were extended to include a comic film and news gazette as part of the programme. There was a high commercial growth during World War I and its effect can be seen through the rise of many cinema halls during this period. Cinema became a part of this new commercial life. Not only cinema halls but branded products also came to the fore. Many individual ventures also came up. There was a change of outlook towards commerce which then again had its effect on the lifestyle of the people specially the commercial community and its workers. Cinema became a branded good to be sold to new classes of audiences being formed in this period”.
Television and the Indian Film Industry
Indian film industry has also faced trouble with the coming of Television in India. The rise of Cable TV in India had negative effect on the film industry. With the rise of Cable TV Networks films reached inside peoples houses thus declining footfalls in theatres. The first Cable TV Network goes back to 1984 with around 100 subscribers. After that there had been a steep rise in the number of subscribers of Cable TV.
Cable TV thus became a good refuge to spend the leisure time. Now one can share time with family, within the comfort zone of the house. There was no need to go out of home to watch a film or theatre. One can now lay back at home, relax with family members and enjoy whatever channel or TV content they want to. This is not saying that everybody would do the same or the man vanished from the streets or film theatres but it is to say that Cable TV proved to be a good alternative for spending leisure time with family without getting out of home and spending money on film tickets. This sudden spread of Cable TV among the masses posed a problem for the film exhibitors.
India’s brush up with Multiplexes
Though there are many reasons behind the steep growing of multiplexes in India, providing of parking area is one. And since multiplexes are constructed inside shopping malls, the people can shop and watch a film at the same time. It becomes an outdoor spot for family gatherings. It is the facility of getting everything under one roof is what attracts the people. One can come
just to shop or just to watch a film or can come to do both. There is no dearth of options and the middle class is spoilt for choice as to where and how they would spend their money. And with facilities such as free parking spaces one can come shop or do whatever one wants inside the shopping mall without ever worrying about the condition of the car or the car being theft. PVR Cinemas which is India‟s first multiplex, opened in Saket, New Delhi in June 1997 consisted of a parking area which could accommodate 300-400 cars at a given time. It also pays the Delhi Government the highest entertainment tax.
A revolution was started by PVR Cinemas in 1997 in the exhibition sector. Many business groups later came up with their multiplex brands. Important among them are Adlabs Films, INOX Leisure and Shringar Cinemas. These business houses have two major advantages over single screen theatres. Firstly, they were constructed inside shopping malls thus decreasing on the amount of land investment. With increasing high land prices especially in metros it would be very heavy on the investors to construct a multiscreen theatre with a lot of parking space. The easier and a more cost effective way is to merge with a shopping mall thus subsidizing investments on both the land owning and parking spaces. Generally, the shopping malls and the multiplex owners share the same parking area both of them thus cutting down on parking space prices.
Secondly, the multiplex owners get huge tax exemption from the Government. Multiplex owners not only get lower entertainment tax on themselves they also get an added advantage of getting 100% tax exemption for constructing multiplexes in some major metros for atleast five years, while the story is still different for many cinema theatre owners who have to comply with the taxation laws of the Government. The multiplexes besides getting tax exempted from their revenues also get the advantage of pricing their tickets very high without any law from the Government to hold back their prices. Thus the ticket prices are as high as 6-4% as compared to the ticket prices of the single screen theatres. But this doesn‟t stop the multiplexes from getting more and more attention from a class belonging to a high income stratum with a generous amount of disposable income. They are the new emerged upper middle class global Indians.
certificate granted by the censor board it was contented that a film cannot trailer the reaction of public towards national anthem and issuing prior intimation will affect the flow of the film. The respondent further contented that there has been no violation of law and commercial exploitation of national anthem. The amicus curiae Mr S.K. Yadav submitted that national anthem cannot be a tool of advertisement and when it becomes a facet of commerce there is disrespect and dishonour to the national honour. 1
However, when the order came in to practice, it did not happen the way judiciary wanted it to be. Rather than generating a feeling of unity, frequent incidents of violence, intense arguments with regard to individual autonomy and freedom raised up. Definitely, there is no harm in standing up to the national anthem, but there is definite harm if someone is humiliated for not doing so. National anthem played at the beginning of public gatherings and official functions as determined by the government and its respective ministry of internal affairs. Is to help promote a spirit of allegiance this, however, is promoting a spirit that has nothing to do with patriotism of any sort.so patriotism is not only about standing up on hearing national anthem but about being a responsible citizen for the state.
Multiplex preferred over single screen theatre despite cheaper rate
The global trend of lower footfalls in multiplexes seems to have caught up with the evergreen Bengali film industry. A study shows that despite proliferation of multiplexes, a majority of viweres from Kolkata have not been in theatres to watch a movie.
The scenario is worse for cinema halls and theatres with most of them showing occupancy rate of 20 per cent to 30 per cent even on weekends.
The survey ' Bengal Bioscope,' a first of its kind on the bengali film industry was done jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and IMRB across districts of West bengal to understand the perception of Bengali films among its target audience. While footfalls in districts at 63 percent is considerably higher than the capital Kolkata, the dwindling numbers in single scren theatres is uniform across the board. However, the survey shows that the case is not similar for other language movies as 75 percent of them have visited a single screen to watch a movie in other language.
1 http://jcil.lsyndicate.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Arathya-Aishwarya.pdf
Around 30% of those who are surveyed do not consider watching Bengali films in a hall in near future and an additional 10% have stopped visiting halls to watch Bengali cinema in the last one year. A senior exhibitor said: "Even when we look back at 2004-2005, all Bengali films were screened for a minimum of 6-8 weeks. Commercial success was driven primarily because of footfall with halls registering almost 100% occupancy on weekends". The study suggests that it would be profitable for the single screen owners to transform them into multiplexes as the younger generation viwers prefer multiplexes over single screen theatres.
The report also suggests the use of e-commerce to increase the reach and shelf-lif of the movies. In India, according to IAMAI report, in 2013, 149 million individuals actively use the internet and these are the potential audience capable of streaming and downloading films. 2
Spatial analysis of various multiplex cinema types
Movies constitute a form of mass culture that can be easily accessed by anyone. The movie market is currently growing at a rapid speed, following the dramatic development of the cultural industry in the 20th century. Although the driving force behind such growth can be attributed to the development of the Korean movie industry itself, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, the expansion and increase of movie-watching facilities along with movie theaters also have an important interactive function. In this process, the multiplex theater, which was triggered by the launch of Gangbyeon CGV in 1998, has particularly become the representative type of movie-watching facility in the movie industry. The number of multiplex theaters has increased to 270 in 2013, making up 81.1% of the total number of theaters in Korea, with 94.9% proportion of the total screen numbers (Korea Film Council, 2013). Compared with the previous single-screen theaters, these multiplex theaters are able to increase the number of theaters with smaller size. As a result, the flexible management of screens has become possible according to the box-office record. This type of theater has also brought several spatial changes in movie watching culture for both suppliers and consumers. For example, linking theaters with diverse programs in line with the movement of viewersin the spaces used according to different viewing times. This study classifies domestic multiplex theaters and selects representative cases to conduct quantitative
2 https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/multiplex-preferred-over-single-screen- theatre- despite-cheaper-rate-study-114121200014_1.html
described as a pastiche, as it is constructed like a variety show, with something for everyone rather than a seamless and linear narrative following a single theme. Film-makers claim that audiences want variety rather than a narrative with a single story-line or homogeneity in emotion. In the films a tragic scene is somewhat abruptly followed by comedy which then shifts to a romantic dance. The portrayal of a love-triangle occupies a significant portion of the film, along with scenes of family life, jokes, humour about the status-conscious middle classes and politicians in India, and fight scenes which resemble street brawls rather than military tactics. Yet another characteristic of popular Indian cinema is that all the films are musicals. For those in the film industry it is clear that the formula film is a quantified product. The expectation for a three to three and a half hour film is that it have a minimum of six to eight ‘songs’. Often these interludes, choreographed as music videos, provide the scaffolding for the narrative. Many film-makers begin by filming, or ‘shooting’, the song sequences, the script for the film being non-existent when filming begins and gradually evolving over time. In today’s market, movies are often ‘hits’ or ‘flops’ based entirely on how the songs fare with audiences. A director anticipating the release of his first commercial masala film with some trepidation confessed that, while he was unsure of the reception the film would receive, he was certain he had a couple of hit songs.
The theatre setting
Cinema theatres in India are sites for the articulation of public culture and are seen to be microcosms of Indian society. Viewers typically decide to go to a theatre near their homes, or to one in a part of the city they are familiar with. The location of theatres in the city consequently sets up its own rough division of audiences. In Deosar the area called ‘Jhankar Takies’ is the older part of the city. This area is less preferred by the educated middle classes and the more westernized section of the population, who are seen to frequent theatres in ‘Cantonment’, many of which screen Hollywood movies. Deosar has not yet seen the development of multiplexes. In certain areas of the city, the close proximity of theatres – in some cases three or four theatres next door to one another or opposite the street from one another, function as a multiplex for audiences.
The interiors of movie theatres contribute to a distinctive culture of movie-going. A few ‘minitheatres’ seat approximately 300 to 400. Theatres offer a stratified viewing experience with seating for different sections such as the ‘Balcony’, ‘Dress Circle’ and the lower level
close to the screen, also called ‘Gandhi class, offered at different prices for the same film. The Balcony is the choice of the middle classes while seats at the lower level and close to the screen are typically frequented by the lower classes, the crowd English-language newspapers in India typically refer to as ‘lumpen elements’. This observation needs to be qualified as it applies generally to audiences but not to regional movies, which often attract fans and movie- goers belonging to the lower middle and lower classes. For such movies, even lower-income viewers are prepared to pay Balcony rates and even ‘black market’ rates. There is also a de facto gender segregation in the theatre as the inexpensive seats close to the screen are monopolized by men. When women go to the movies they are rarely seen in these seats. Older movie-goers reminisced about their experiences decades ago, when rows of seats were reserved for women as ‘ladies’ seats’ just as ticket queues had ‘ladies’ queues’.
People dress up for the movies and go to be seen and to see others. Middle-class viewers expect those seated closest to the screen to be loud and boisterous and to adopt overtly participatory viewing practices similar to the Elizabethan pit audiences who were part of the spectacle and the subject of comment in 16th-century England In many theatres, those in the Balcony are able to literally look down on the audience in the less expensive seats and the activities of these viewers become part of the movie experience for the Balcony audience. During certain scenes in the movie, middle-class audiences in the Balcony look to the lower- class audiences for certain specific behaviours, such as throwing coins at the screen or throwing torn up lottery tickets to indicate appreciation of the movie or of certain stars. When talking about their movie experience, middle-class viewers frequently refer to ‘front benchers’, ‘lower class’, or ‘peons and autorickshaw drivers’ or simply to ‘Gandhi class’ and comment on their unrestrained habits of shouting, ‘catcalls’, whistling and lewd comments on the movie.
Audiences are so accustomed to an interval that even Hollywood films which may have a total screening time of 90 minutes are stopped halfway. If the interval is delayed for any reason, viewers become restless and leave their seats. Rather than pay attention to the film they carry on conversations with their friends near the concessions stands or in the aisles. Theatre management has devised a way to get the often reluctant post-intermission audience back in their seats. A bell is rung in some theatres before the lights go off, and the duties of the usher include rounding up stray viewers to tell them the film has commenced.
well. A woman became tearful during an emotional scene in the film .Hearing her, two men seated nearby pretended to sob loudly, the interaction making fellow viewers laugh.
Repeat viewing
Both Hollywood and Bollywood realize the value of the repeat audience. The term ‘repeaters’ in India refers to an extreme type of viewer who sees the same film over and over, The active audience apart such viewers from general Indian audiences who also routinely see films they like more than once, which allows them to have a distinctive experience of the film. While repeat viewing is a routine practice among Indian audiences, there are occasionally films which capture the audience’s attention in an extreme way and these films have become ‘superhits’. Some of the films which have remained in theatres for months, sometimes for a year by popular demand, are Sholay, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Dil Wale Dulhaniyan Le Jayenge. Often repeat viewing comes about through ‘word of mouth’, as, upon telling a friend or family member about a film one has seen, one sees the film again in the company of that friend. Through repeat viewing audiences construct cinema as a social experience as they go to the movies either with the same group but often with different people which varies the experience. When I asked a viewer about her seeing a film more than once she indignantly informed me that she went the second time to the movie, ‘because I was going with another group’. Seeing a film for the second, third or twenty-fifth time makes for a different viewing experience for repeaters as well as those who may be seeing the film the first time.
Conclusion
The direction, in which Film Industry and Cinema are moving today, has generated enormous social tension to which we have not been able to find appropriate solutions. The situation as on date is that via these commercials, power has been transferred to business houses that have consistently ignored the social implications of their actions. The problem is fundamental, as on the basis of the review of literature, it has been established that the content of Films and Movies is damaging for not only society, but morality too. Complaints and concerns about Cinemas have been extensive since their advent. Although some substantial research has been done on the positive and negatives both consequences of cinema across the world, the behavioral consequences and sociological impact of cinema on adolescents and its values caused by exposure to them is yet an unexplored area. The researchers have not come across much research on this issue in India. This study is, therefore, timely as the society needs to be made
aware of the influence of Cinema on the social and moral turnout of the viewers. Via this study, an attempt has been made to evaluate the social implications of Impact of Cinema on Indian Adolescents “A Sociological Study of Jaipur” Therefore the current study proves that for adolescent Viewing Cinema as a powerful medium of information, education and entertainment results in the process of opinion building in various social groups. And cinema is the medium of cinema reciprocates in bringing a social change. And at-last it can be concluded that adolescents are very much influenced by the cinema and they inhale psychological, cultural, sociological changes along with the drastic changes in lifestyle, behavior, and so on.
The multiplexes also slates out time for mainstreams as they are the main grosser. They still have to compete with single screen theatres as they outnumber the multiplexes since they are situated in every nook and corner of the city. The multiplex reach is not yet that deep. But what multiplexes offer is a film viewing experience. Films are one among the many options that one can opt for in the conglomeration of shopping malls and multiplex. The consumers are spoilt for choice. The shopping malls with its multiplex, food courts and gaming zones provides a good location for family outings. Thus multiplexes are catering to families and mostly affluent families who have the spending power. “Since it needs only a section that would guarantee a sell out of its limited seats being offered at a higher rate, it tends to exclude the average Bollywood film. But in so doing it has managed to elicit viewership from upper class segments, who previously may have held reservations towards cinema going, given the lack of facilities like air-conditioning, upscale interiors and so on” Thus multiplexes are here to stay with the fast growing economy of India. What future effects will they have on the Indian film industry only time can tell. Since the film exhibition sector is an under researched area, much more work should be done regarding this. To sum up, this dissertation is an insight into a form exhibition of films through multiplexes and the effects it has on the film making industry.
