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| Cinepolis ticket counter in Patna. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey |
You can take your film to the multiplex but you can’t make the audience watch it. That’s the lesson makers of Bhojpuri film Pyaar Jindabaad Ba learnt on Thursday.
Directed by Mohan Rao, produced by Raghvendra Films and starring Pankaj Kesari and Sejal Sharma, Pyaar Jindabaad Ba is probably the first Bhojpuri film to be released at a multiplex. But even a stylish premiere could not attract the crowd.
When the first show of the film started at Cinepolis at 3.05pm, the auditorium with a seating capacity of more than 200 had only 50 people. None of them had bought tickets — they had all been invited for the show. “I think people will like to watch a Bhojpuri film in a multiplex,” Kesari hoped.
But the Cinepolis administration, film distributors and experts all differed with him. “This is the first time we are screening a Bhojpuri film. It will not run for more than a week because the audience for Bhojpuri films cannot afford our rates,” Cinepolis manager Abhishek Ranjan said.
Distributors said running a Bhojpuri film in a multiplex was too dear. “It costs us more than Rs 35,000,” said Raju Kumar, a Bhojpuri film distributor. Patna Cine Society president R.N. Das said: “Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal and Maharashtra have made it mandatory for the multiplexes to screen regional films. There is no such practice in Bihar.”