Movies are movi(e)ng in the wrong direction, feels veteran distributor and exhibitor Yusuf Shaikh. But he is not content with merely diagnosing this problem. He is offering a cogent solution: Janta Cinemas and Express Cinemas—unique cinema-watching experiences.
EXCLUSIVE: Exhibitor Yusuf Shaikh on his Janta Cinemas and Express Cinema initiatives, “This concept is the need of the hour for India. All we need is a place”
Shaikh was (literally) born in a cinema theatre—his home was above Naaz cinema in Kheda district, Gujarat, one of the 51 theatres his popular distributor-exhibitor father Mehboob Shaikh then ran. When he was in Standard IX, he would deal with the distribution stalwarts like Ramesh Sippy and Balkrishna Shroff. In 2002, he joined Shravan Shroff of Fame Adlabs and from 2003, he headed the Percept-Sahara JV.
In an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama, Shaikh talks about how and why Janta Cinemas and Express cinemas, which he has already started with great success in Assam, can help the movie business revive.
How did this idea of ‘Janta Cinemas’ come to you?
I discovered a technology last year at the Cannes Film Festival. Artinii Pro, a Prague-based company, has developed the world’s most encrypted cinema player with a server that sits in a computer. Within 15 minutes of a click, you can not only play but also send a movie anywhere in the world, with 2k and 4k resolution and 5.1 Surround Sound. You do not need the internet once the film is received in your cinema player. All you need is a booth or a place to screen a film, and I saw this happening in Cannes. What’s more, this technology is being used very safely in about 90 countries already by distributors, to show movies to the people, and by producers who would want to show films securely to buyers. We have movies from all the international studios too. In Europe, they even make a weekend party out of film watching, with food and drinks, in an open backyard or park or a playground.
How exactly do you plan to use it here?
This concept is the need of the hour for India! I have partnered with Artinii Pro for a joint venture here. The movie can play through the software that has eight specialized anti-piracy layers, and thus is completely safe. And a film can be released anywhere. Apart from an existing or new cinema hall, I can release a film in any hall that could include a community hall, a library, a school assembly, in the open air, including a beach, in a restaurant or a dhaba, in an amphitheatre, a wedding hall and so on.
All we need is a place! The Government allows a license to do this also. The entire technology will be provided by us, including the projector, sound and server (for the computer). If needed, we will even furnish the chairs! We can have a single show, or multiple ones, of new as well as old movies. But the beauty is that each show is block-chained and encrypted. It will only open with the producer’s or distributor’s permission, and upon receipt of the money. There will be no leakage whatsoever. The records of show screening will be maintained for lifetime in our system.
What about the economics?
They are beautiful!! There is no VPF (Virtual Print Fee) –we understand that a producer/distributor should not be charged monies for VPF on the day of the release. We earn a small percentage after the producer and distributor earn. We offer the local partner the technology, and work on a revenue share with them. At certain places, we even work on a fixed fee basis. The ticket rates are kept at a minimum affordable amount, so that the audience gets to see the First Day First Show films. The business will thrive for the producers/ distributors as we are bringing in a new audience from places where there were no cinema halls. Also, this will kill piracy in the interiors.
What motivates you—and the industry—to go in for this?
This is solving a major problem. In India, we make 2400 films in 12 languages and Telugu leads among them. We have Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Oriya and Assamese language films leading the list. Incidentally, it is estimated that about 1000 films each year do not even get theatres!
A simple math is important here: India has just 9000 screens for a population of 150 crores and these 2400 films. China has approximately. 90,000 cinema screens for an equivalent population and produces only 750 to 800 films a year! The biggest Indian film only reaches 5000-odd screens. It’s a crazy imbalance, which can only be set right by Janta Cinemas! We plan to have a thousand outlets within the first year itself and have already begun in Assam, where we have got great success!
That is why we have launched two models. A Janta Cinema model, which goes well with the interiors, where community watching will be acceptable, and the other is a more structured cinema model called Express Cinemas, which follows the traditional cinema route.
But in both cases, you can be assured of instant cinema experience on a ‘First Day First Show’ basis. Any classic can be watched within 15 minutes of ordering it! Whether they want to watch Amar Akbar Anthony or Saving Private Ryan or a Parasite, express it and get it at Express speed! Birthday parties, celebrations, special events and landmark days like Independence Day, an actor’s birthday, anniversaries, government events, local festivals, teaching classes—all of them can be managed at the click of a button in large format. And this has nothing to do with OTT streaming.
Why have you begun with Assam in particular?
That’s because we have virtually no theatres in many North-Eastern districts there. Community watching is very much acceptable. I will initially target such zones, so we are expanding in the North-East. I started with one community hall in Dibrugarh and now there is demand now from 30 more locations in the area! I began by taking hits like Pathaan and Tiger 3 there from Yash Raj Films, but they also chiefly wanted to see movies in their own language. The local government also is very cooperative. They gave us instant permissions.
Look at these photographs—there is a panchayat community hall, this is a wedding hall and that one is a godown in a bidi factory! The people are hungry for entertainment, especially from the evenings. The shows of local films were full to the brim! These are the loyal masses that we have been completely alienated! Now we have local partners, as managing everything from Mumbai would not be practical. I can promise you similar response in all markets, especially for regional films in each state.
So where is movie business going wrong?
Film-watching has actually been made prohibitive for most people, due to the high ticket rates! We have converted cinema-going into a very expensive medium that it can only be afforded by A-class urban audiences.
For me, masses are the most loyal audiences. Especially the audiences in India, and the cinema we make here is and will always cater to the mass medium. Until we don’t consider masses as our major audience and unless we don’t make it reasonable for masses, we will continue to be in bad shape. Any successful film would have fallen short if the masses did not watch it.
The A-class or multiplex audience, for example, is choosy, there is no loyalty, and they watch a film only after getting or reading multiple reviews. They have made us forget the phenomenon of the ‘First Day First Show’ urgency. They just don’t come out on Friday mornings to watch a film. They step out by Friday evening, that too only if the film has good reviews. There are very few exceptions to this rule now, whereas we have seen the craze for FDFS audiences in the mass belt many times in the past.
Today no one works on their target audience before making a film, or rather before planning a campaign. For example, how can you think that Vedaa as a multiplex film? From the campaign, it’s a pure mass film. What was done to promote Vedaa for the masses? Nothing! All the shows got taken by Stree 2, thus resulting in the film not finding its audience, neither in the class nor mass belt!
Even when it comes to promotions, in the past, there would be six to eight weeks of promotion, but now that has come down to 10 days, including social media. That too when social media promotions are much cheaper than the earlier TV slots. Arre bhai, if you have a good song, start promoting it and allow it to go viral. Ninety percent of audiences have never heard a film’s songs, and today, a song becomes a hit, if at all, only three months after the film’s release, like a ‘Chaleya’ from Jawan became a hit much after the film’s release.
That’s the gap we are seeing. And a study shows that about 6.5 lakh villages and small towns have no cinemas at all! Business is going down, as we are ignoring the janta itself, so I have named this mission as Janta Cinemas!
Don’t you expect opposition from conventional avenues here?
No, I don’t! We are first approaching all the zones where there are no screens today or they have shut down. Everyone is getting clean business. What does the producer want? He wants his film to reach everyone and get maximum business. We ask a producer how much he will give us after he makes his money. After all, thanks to this amazing technology, his film is absolutely secure. Thanks to this technology, we do not even need to charge VPF, or Virtual Print Fee like the other digital cinema agencies do, and there is no mastering fee, as it is all automatic and free. And I am not buying any rights, but only serving cinema and contributing to business.
It’s unbelievable what one can do with this system, and Yash Raj Films, Reliance Entertainment, Pen Marudhar Entertainment, AA Films, Mukta Arts, Shemaroo, Ultra and even associations like IMPPA, the Producers’ Guild and others are all supporting us. Even they want to get rid of the menace of VPF.
What about big cities? Here too we have audiences who need affordable tickets.
All that can be done in time. But for a city model called Express Cinemas, hand-holding will be needed. Right now, I am concentrating on areas where we do not have sufficient movie halls.
Also Read: Film producer, distributor Yusuf Shaikh remembers how the Sunny Deol – Ameesha Patel starrer Gadar: Ek Prem Katha changed lives
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