By Ferdinand Rani | SHILLONG:
The film industry in Meghalaya is not booming. The efforts made by filmmakers over the years have produced little fruit and the struggle to sell films is far from overall because a filmmaker cannot put a price on his production. Since its inception, the Khasi film industry has not been allowed the freedom to set prices in a free market.
By 18 May 2022, Ko Mei Jong Nga’s tickets were offered at Rs 100 for front stalls, Rs 150 for rear stalls and Rs 200 for balcony. At the time, the film was only being screened at the Bijou Cinema, one of the oldest in the city. On the day, fewer than five occupied the balcony (365 seats), with an unimpressive number at the front stall (319) and rear stall (245).
Although it may seem the government’s higher rates for films would be a boon, Ko Mei Jong Nga‘s producer Larry Suchiang feels differently. “People told me that the tickets are too high for the common folk and it is not possible for them to come with their loved ones”.
Bijou Cinema was formally established in the 1930s. Today, Gautam Goenka has continued the family legacy as its proprietor. He says these exorbitant rates are normally applied to Khasi films, whereas other language films are charged at the older 20–40–60 rate. But neither the film producer nor the exhibitor was privy to the decision-making that led to these lopsided rates.
“Meghalaya is the only state wherein film rates have been restricted by the government. For an increase or decrease in the rates, one needs to seek permission from the government and that takes an n number of years”, says Goenka. Indeed, when in 1982 the Goenkas applied to have the rates increased, the government responded to this application in the affirmative in 1999 – 17 years later.
Legal machinations stipulate that the licensee or the exhibitor must apply for an increase in rates to the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, the licensing authority. “However, whenever we apply for the rates, the file goes to the General Administration Department, where it remains pending”. The last time Bijou Cinema approached the government was in 2016 to revise the ticket rates given the Amendment Bill that reformed India’s tax regime vis-à-vis the good and services tax (GST).
Part II of The Meghalaya Cinema (Regulation) Rules & The Meghalaya Cinema (Exhibition of Films on Videos Equipment) Rules, 1985, states that “The rates of payment for admission to the different class in the licensed premises shall be determined by the Licensing Authority and these rates shall not be increased without an order in writing by the Licensing Authority permitting such increase”.
So far, at least six screens have shut down, says Goenka, with Bijou Cinema and Anjalee Cinema holding their ground. “Payal and Dreamland have shut down their doors permanently only because the exhibitor and the producer together could not finalise upon the rates”, he says.
In a good year, Bijou Cinema releases about 10 licensed Khasi films. It also caters to Hollywood and Hindi cinema. With no room for upgrades, exhibitors like Goenka are sustaining their business under threat or near-constant loss. “Above 100 [ticket price], the GST is 18 per cent, and below 100 is 12 per cent. If we increase the rates, the government gets more revenue in terms of tax collection. At the same time, the producer and the exhibitor get more revenue, the viewers get better facilities to watch films, and this way you have a higher number of screens coming into town”, Goenka says.
Although the exhibitors and producers have demanded a free rate, where in the government provides only the bottom and top ceilings, no progress is visible on the horizon, leaving the entire Khasi film industry in limbo.
In neighbouring Assam, the state government’s film policy has already been modernised to keep pace with market and cultural trends. There, the Goenkas are the proprietors of Kelvin Cinema, which was established in 1935 by Jeevanram Goenka, son of Ganeshdas Goenka, a young migrant to Shillong from Rajasthan. Kelvin Cinema has an illustrious history of screening Assamese films. Jeevanram, along with his son Rameshwar Prasad, established Bijou Cinema in 1939. It would be one amongst a number of cinemas the Goenka family would establish across the Northeast.
“In Assam, in 2000, the number of multiplexes was nil and single screens were shutting down. So they came up with a film policy and an order wherein the exhibitor is free to charge whatever pricing for the tickets” – a zero government interference policy. When the Goenkas shared this plan with the government in Meghalaya, there was little reaction from bureaucrats.
An excerpt from the Assam order dated 18 October 2000 from the Commissioner Secretary to the district magistrates of Assam states, “(The) licensee shall have the freedom to fix the rates of tickets in whole rupees after computing entertainment tax to the basic rates of the admission…”
Ever since, the number of screens in Assam has exploded. The growth of the film industry has been exponential, and the state implemented subsidies for the establishment of cinema halls.
“All the states in India have free rates. Around the world, people have free rates. Meghalaya is the only state where the government is controlling the rates”, Goenka says.
Should the government be serious about the film industry, its solution cannot be an infantile strategy of indiscriminately opening cinema halls across districts. “Everybody involved needs money – from the actor to the technician. The revenue only comes through screens. The government cannot run an industry. They need to be the facilitator. They need to give a free hand to the people in the state and across the industry”.
If Bijou cinema has to continue the way it does today, it will die, warns Goenka. With no freedom to make decisions, the market remains stunted and unprofitable, leaving proprietors of cinema halls unable to even meet the cost of maintenance.
Unlike in the past, when cinemas were the only option for watching films, audiences today visit cinema multiplexes not only for the film but for an “experience” of high-quality surround sound, a crisp silver screen and social bonding. Yet, unlike other capitals in India, Shillong leaves a bitter taste for viewers of films across every demographic.
Each film has a different budget, technical requirements and process, making a single rate impractical business form. In most places in India, tickets also vary by day – higher on weekends and lower on weekdays. These flexibilities make films accessible to wider section of society. By the second or third week, rates fall to increase the audience.
The government’s bias against Khasi films is even more evident when considering its indiscriminate spending on tourism. Hotels and homestays dot the entire state, even in ecologically sensitive areas. “They don’t have any curbs on their rates by the government”, says Goenka. Any establishment catering to tourists is free to do as it wishes. “When there is no capping in that area, why is there a cap or government interference in the fixing of rates in the cinema industry? It is choking the industry”, says Goenka. The government, in some sense, is killing films in Meghalaya.
ALSO READ: HOSTAGE TO A VICIOUS CYCLE: The Many Woes Of The Khasi Film Industry
As an industry insider, Goenka says Meghalaya continues to be a destination of potential for giants like PVR Cinemas, the progenitor of the multiplex revolution and known for providing the highest quality of cinema experience in India. “They all have one major concern, which is ticket pricing”, he says. The film and cinema industry has no answers to give on why the government continues to hesitate on a free market. “The day this will happen, many screens will open up, and regional films will have many screens”.
There are other problems that need to be teased out – the modernisation of cinemas will inevitably affect regional cinema as new costs come to the fore. One of them is digitalisation, which is necessary to allow a film to be screened in more than one screen in the appropriate format. Khasi films made on a shoestring budget find this cost too exorbitant for Shillong’s one screen.
The disaster is not unfolding – instead, exhibitors and filmmakers are now in the eye of a storm very few in the state are willing to acknowledge even exists. “In terms of profitability, our books are showing that we have been running into losses for years now. The only thing that keeps us going is because we have a family history in cinema. For the past 150 years, we Goenkas have been involved in this – right from Bijou, Anjalee and Kelvin to Rhino Cinema”. Amongst the first families to establish cinema halls in the Northeast, Goenka says the flailing business of screening films is kept alive only for emotional reasons.
The palaeolithic cave paintings of Lascaux in southwest France show strange animals drawn with multiple limbs and heads as if they were aliens. But when light from fire flickers across the cave walls, these 15,000-year-old paintings appear to move – like animation. Cinema, we surmise now, has been a prehistoric fixture of humanity. Humans have, for long, sought entertainment for leisure and business, a truth completely lost on the government. At a time when the state needs to cap the price of essential products, it has instead controlled industry with immense potential for artistic and technical talent.
“We’ve been fighting for this industry for a very long time”, says Goenka. Few can say for how much longer.
ALSO WATCH: