By Ferdinand Rani | SHILLONG:
Cinema-goers would know that most Khasi film producers release their movies at Bijou Cinema, a legendary fixture of the city. Galleria, which also shows Hindi and English cinema, has a higher capping price on the rates which does not match the budgets of local producers. When blockbuster films reach Shillong, tickets are scalped at a much higher rate, further incurring losses to both producers and the government. In such cases, neither the producer nor the exhibitor can control the price and people can be seldom discouraged from buying the more expensive scalped tickets, writers Ferdinand Rani in a first of a two-part series on the Khasi film industry.
In the young Khasi film industry, films are sparse and Ko Mei Jong Nga is Larry Suchiang’s twenty-first film. Yet established filmmakers like him are left at the mercy of an obsolete, nearly non-existent film policy. On May 18, the twelfth day of Ko Mei Jong Nga’s screening, a group of film producers struck a discussion on the issues Khasi filmmakers face in the state. Among them was Commander Shangpliang, President of the Meghalaya Film Makers Association. Frustrated by the stagnant industry, Shangpliang reiterated the need to empower producers to set the screening rates. “We have low- and high-budget films fixed at the same rate for both, which is not welcome. It depends from product to product. If the rate is free to fix, the whole process will be transparent and the profits will not only be enjoyed by the producer alone. The revenue will also go to the government”.
A 2014 archive of the Film Federation of India lists at least 82 single screens in Assam. “Films earn Rs 10–12 crores. We can achieve the same if we have more cinema halls here. We can pay our actors not less than Rs 5 lacs, which can go higher. At present, we can’t even earn Rs 10 lacs from one move”, says Shangpliang. In the absence of a formal, long-term policy by the government, filmmakers are reduced to headless roosters, running pillar to post to get films created and screened. “Till date, there is no particular department looking after film. The earlier the rates were too meagre for regional films”. Although the unanimous preference is for free rates, the absence of proper policies means that each producer individually approaches the General Administration Department, which administers the “Meghalaya Cinema Acts and Rules, Meghalaya Cinema (Exhibition of film of video equipment) Rules, 1985. The Central Government Cinema Act and Rules”, to fix rates for films. “That doesn’t work”, Shangpliang says.
As per the government official meeting held on the 30 November 2021 on re-fixing admission rates for Khasi movies, the General Administration Department released a notification unanimously approving the retention of ticket rates inclusive of GST for a period of two years for all Khasi movies in all cinema halls in the state at Rs 200 for balcony, Rs 150 for rear stall and Rs 100 for front stall.
Shangpliang, however, said that these rates were meant to be an individual request for one particular producer, whereas the notification, which came as a shock, now applies wholesale to all films irrespective of the film’s budget. For Suchiang, selling tickets is a struggle at the higher rates, and the government’s caps make decreasing prices impossible. In the end, the films lose out on an audience that shuns higher-priced tickets for low-budget local films.
“It’s really affecting us as filmmakers”, says Suchiang, who was visibly frustrated at the situation. “If the state government provides the free ticket rates just like the rest of the country, it will be very helpful for everyone, the filmmakers and also the common people”.
On 10 March 2022, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma announced a “film policy” for Meghalaya, allocating a budget of Rs 1,363 crores, calling it a “youth budget”. The promise was to formulate a film policy for Meghalaya and attract filmmakers to the state. Shangpliang, though, remains a sceptic, specifically questioning which department will be designated to utilise these funds and if there is any industry expertise in these strategies. “Who will draft the film policy? Which department? We welcome the initiative. We are happy that the government is coming up with a policy, but through which department? We want the government to be clear. The [Department of Information and Public Relations] had no idea when we approached… not even the arts and culture department”.
The government, it seems, continues to be clueless, despite the Association’s many overtures. Its attempts to approach the government repeatedly flop. “We spoke to the Information and Public Relations minister in the past. We met the chief minister too, but maybe they are not taking interest because we don’t even have a specific department to look over it”. At present, the Khasi film industry, in the clutches of old-school government bureaucracy, rarely attracts investments compared with Sikkim, which released a final policy in 2020 and has long been known as a film-friendly location, or with Assam, which has a mature film industry that releases both blockbusters and critically acclaimed independent cinema.
“We have a strong faith that Khasi films have the potential of earning Rs 100 crores, but there must be a market for us to sell our products”, says Shangpliang. “[The government does not] understand. They have no clue how such systems work outside”. Filmmakers in Meghalaya rarely lack support, especially from rural audiences, who travel from Nongstoiñ and Jowai to watch films in Shillong. “We have faith that, if there are more screens, the industry will automatically rise”.
Since the inception of the state, residents in the state have been limited to very few regional films irrespective of the budget under which they are made. When tickets are expensive, viewers back away, and when tickets are cheap, producers suffer a loss. The constrained market has created a vicious cycle that forces the film industry to lag in technology and talent, the latter of which is captured by other states’ industries. For filmmakers like Suchiang and his team, making a good profit at this pace is next to impossible.
“People think that filmmakers are rich folks. No, we’re not. We are just being artistic in making films. There were times when producing two films in a row would run us into a loss. But since we love the profession, we hope to make profit in future films”.
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