Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Watching a movie in India

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Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 03-25-2011, 11:27 AM:

I was on a month long trip to Thailand, India, Thailand again, and Japan. (I was able to redeem a roundtrip on Delta for 60K miles from Atlanta to Bangkok via a 2 day layover in Japan on the way back which explains my strange routing). Got back a couple of days before the Japan earthquake.

So, I was in Chennai(formerly Madras) and checked out The Mechanic with my cousins.
1)Funny thing, with globalization, India has access to a lot more R and NC-17 type stuff than ever before, especially on tv. Yet censorship of mainstream English movies in theaters may actually have gone up, or maybe it was just this one movie. I remember nudity in sex scenes being shown in Indian theaters when I went to India as a kid. They censored what I assume, based on past Statham movies, to be a fairly tame sex scene with Jason Statham and the hooker lady. THey show the beginning two seconds and cut abruptly to the end .
2) The ticket cost only 110 rupees which is the equivalent of nearly $2.50. The multiplex was clean, very modern looking. Good picture, good sound.
3) They had reserved seating which I knew existed in the older theaters. It was just weird getting it for a multiplex type theater. The theater was half empty, yet they seated everyone right next to each other in the back two rows. I told my reluctant cousin that we needed to switch seats as I wasn't a big fan of the seating position and being sandwiched between people when we had enough space. So we moved to an empty row.
4) They still have INTERMISSIONS even for a movie as short as The Mechanic. The concessions stand was better than our stands and the prices were a lot cheaper even if you take into account that food in general is cheaper in India. They had pastries that were on par with their good bakeries. They had a food court like arrangement inside the theater. Prices didn't seem to differ from comparable outlets on the outside by much. So I don't know if foreign studios just dump English movies for very little rental fees in Indian theaters.

The next day, we passed by another multiplex in a new mall. Damn, this place looked really fancy. The food outlets were even classier with gourmet pastries and restaurant quality food. The LCD screens in the lobby were touchscreen and giant in size and allowed people to buy tickets and view movie info. Didn't go into an auditorium to check out the quality of the presentation.

I was in India 5 years ago and checked out some theaters in a small city known for its theaters a long time ago. Wow, I don't know how they are now, but they sucked in terms of presentation back then. At that time, complaints were Indian theaters were going downhill rapidly in quality. Slightly out of focus pics, and bulb brightness was an issue in most of their theaters. So this recent trip to the multiplex was a pleasant surprise for me.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 03-25-2011, 11:45 AM:

Pravin, very interesting -- thanks for the info. I take it this was still a film operation? I was under the impression that they were using a lot of E-Cinema video over there.

Also, how do they work the intermission? Do the studios send the film (print or video) with a built-in intermission or do they just stop it at when half the reels have played? I had heard, but only second, maybe third hand, that the studios know that it is a hard and fast custom in the subcontinent to have an intermission in every movie regardless of length so they actually place an intermission point in the film released there; I am assuming that means with an intermission title frame as well. Is this actually the case?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-25-2011, 01:57 PM:

From what I hear, the intermission is pretty abrupt on movies that don't have them built in. Some may splice an INTERMISSION tag on the end of the third reel or so or simply let it tail out (or cue the projector to stop). But Indians always MUST have an intermission. Their society would crumble into chaos if they didn't.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 03-25-2011, 07:55 PM:

I was in India last year, and while in Jaipur, we came upon the Rajmandir, which is supposedly the best cinema in all of Asia. We tried to get tickets, but the lines were way too long. The thing I found odd about it was the box office didn't open until 15 minutes before the show started and it seems like it'd take twice as long as that just to get everyone inside and seated. Crazy.

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 03-28-2011, 01:23 PM:

Frank, I think it was a digital operation.

Oh, one annoying thing. Remember when we were speculating/joking/worrying that the post 9-11 overreaction might include security checks at theaters, well they got that in big cities in India in wake of the Mumbai terrorist attack. I personally think to have that even in a southern city like Chennai is ridiculous. I was getting a patdown by the security and reused that line "don't touch my junk, bro". The security guard had no clue what I was talking about and just gave me a generic grin.

And yes, the intermission is abrupt. Another annoying trend is that it is actually tougher to watch an English movie in English in some of the smaller cities. Sure, they may be getting American movies much faster these days. But dubbing has gone rampant.