We are witnessing salary levels skyrocketing more than ever in almost all sectors, thanks to high-tech industry growth pushing the economy forward. Now every day is a spending spree holiday for middle class families. It palpably attracted investors from all over especially foreign companies debuting their successful business in India.
One sector which is gaining momentum, is the all time cash cow entertainment industry. To be specific, Multiplex Entertainment complexes. Every metro city is now garnered with at least 2-3 big multi-complex theaters all around to attract audiences on every end. These big complexes with luxury of modern technology, fully air-conditioned enjoyed by us today have a totally different other side 2 decades ago.
Going back to the days of watching movies sitting on the sand floor or a broken bench. It has total different view all-together. Lets take a short ride going back in time?
Going back to the days of watching movies sitting on the sand floor or a broken bench. It has total different view all-together. Lets take a short ride going back in time?
When I was like 8-9years old, my grandma and mom used to take me to small touring Talkies place called CHITTI KOTAAI(hut). It was in the remote place outside our town limit. There is no proper road to get their and we had to walk like 4-5 miles from our home in a unpaved road. The talkies only had a small brick room for projector and seating's are under a big covered lot roofed by coconut tree leaves.
It was a 3 level seating arrangement. Sand floor, Wooden bench and chairs. Chair seating is like today's balcony. As you can guess, tickets are cheaper for floor seating compared to chairs. It is also fully air conditioned at the time itself. Yes, naturallyventilated! There are couple of standing fans just for chair seating's and others have the luxury of air flowing from all directions thru the open sides. There is no sophisticated bathrooms to worry about, just plain ordinary open space. No need to worry about the cleanliness of it. It's all taken care by mother nature.
No reservations needed. You get tickets all the time because you can sit anywhere. It wasn't that expensive either, just a 50paise to Rupee for the show according to your seating. Only bad thing about this talkies are no security for your life. You might have snakes accompanying you for the evening show in your next seat. So you don't have search for a partner to go with you. I might have watched may be a movie or two in that place before it vanishes. You can still rarely see these talkies in some rural areas or country sides certain states.
Then came real evolution of cine biz bringing more well-built theaters popping around every town. Its was the best movie entertainment, people can get those days far better comparing to cine/touring talkies other than extra money for the comfort. It had the same 3 level seatings starting with bench as the bear minimum, chairs and balcony to the next level. Bench seatings are closer and not very comfortable. Chair seatings fits our valise perfectly with great luxury of fans whirling on top, fueling in cool air all around. Balcony was extreme suited for upper middle class audiences with little hefty price to pay for the comfort. It was so much better and different.
During holidays, it has become a family tradition to go out for good movies. Me, my sisters usually accompanied by my mom, grandma and aunts for a matinée shows, thats the only time they were free. This change in suburb peddled a transition to big screen theaters in city side. Watching movies at City theater became one of my teen age dreams. It finally came true, when I saw the movie "JAWS" first time on the big screen during a visit to my other grandma(mom's side) house in the city. It was the time when theater complexes exploded all parts of the city. There were 3/4 theaters in one complex were the big buzz those days.
Movie going trend suddenly experienced a bottleneck by the evolution of high-tech Video players exported from Singapore and Malaysia. High class people experienced the luxury of watching all new movies (pirated mostly) within few days of its release just sitting at our own living room introducing the first movie piracy.
That introduced the Cine industries first battle with surge of video tape piracy, literally taking over the theater experience. Nobody could able to control it because there were no proper law to handle them. From there on, it just took different avatars from Tapes to CD's and to DVD's of now days. Piracy still continue to be a virus which bugs the movie industry till today.
This critical situation calling for something different that suits today generation. A different technique that will attracts audience back to theaters. Answer, birth of Drive-in theaters and Multiple complex movie theater with more fun items like bowling, video games, car racing etc in one place for every age. It is now the magic kingdom and talk of the town around kids and even among adults, changing the overall movie going experience.
Going out to movies transformed from a mere touring talkies experience to Drive-ins and luxury multi entertainment mall masala.
Whats on the works to entertain us next, I am yet to guess!! Any clues ?!
