OAT - a declining business?

My recent trip to the Prarthana drive-in Open-Air-Theatre (just 5 kms from home on the East Coast Road) to watch Kamal Hassan's latest release "Vettaydu Vellyadu" forced me to write a blog.

Well, neither am I going to review this movie, nor talk about its 70mm screen, amplifiers, car-parking, fresh air and romantic mood with your babe, or the mosquitoes sucking your +ve/-ve blood. It’s about this classic form of entertainment loosing its charm to the dozens of multiplexes sprung up in the city, or for that matter the country.

Gone are those days when you couldn’t sit on those hard butt-breaking, spine-cracking seats in theatres, or suddenly find a rat climbing through your pants/sarees/skirts (ahem..). Today, the entertainment industry has changed so rapidly in Chennai with Satyam Cinemas leading the pack in movie entertainment. Housing almost 5 screens that transmit movies to an intelligent audience one after the other, coupled with high-quality DTS surround sound, cosy seats, popcorn/coke holders, gorgeous babes, bowling alleys, games, etc. this multiplex and many more hi-fi theatres have changed the way we look at the cinema entertainment today.
  • In 2nd place are the steadily affordable home-theatre systems, provided you have the luxury of green notes and wide-screen space to accommodate the 6.1 speaker systems and sub-woofers, to make you a convenient couch-potato of the society.
  • In 3rd place is PIRACY, a dreaded word in the film industry.
  • In 4th place is the boom of DTH (digital-to-home) entertainment and introduction of CAS in India, something cable wallas will suffer for sure in the coming years. With a range of nearly 160 channels covering music, movies, sports, and news displayed in digital quality with stereophonic sound, the future of entertainment is in your fingertips. Current leader in India is DishTV (Zee group), while new entrants include TATASky and Anil Ambani's Reliance BlueMagic DTH. What's more, you got radio channels for free thru this system. Now, u may ask why is this in 4th place? Well, my sixth-sense predicts that in the coming 10 years, film distributors may start screening new releases via DTH on the same day it hits the bigscreen (high hopes right :)! No doubt a distant reality, I see this as a positive business oppurtunity for the film industry and am banking my money on this dream.
That leaves us to last best option to watch a movie, the all alone Open Air Theatre excluding the OAT for the IIT students who get special screenings every week. An OAT by far has to be the most relaxed atmosphere to watch a movie.

But, then why is it not >= multiplexes in Chennai? Why can’t they come close to the likes of Satyam or a Devi Paradise. Simple, only 2 shows daily and strictly Tamil movies, NO English, NO Hindi. How the hell is it supposed to gain popularity in Chennai that today comprises a huge chunk of North-Indians and Queen’s English dominated audience?

What’s more, the number of “IT” parks that are just a 30 minute drive to this theatre should definitely attract audience, but because of this pahetic restriction of onleeeeeee Tamil movies, the theatre does not stand a chance to come close to the earnings made by a even a 3*** theatre.

I wonder what is the film fraternity doing about this beautiful OAT in Chennai, the last of its kind. Please SAVE it by promoting it!

Note: I dont get paid to promote this OAT.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CARS - Kachow! Kachow! K-k-k-chow

Image
Having seen most of their big hits like Toy S tory Part1&2, The Incredibles , Finding Nemo , Monsters Inc. , A Bug's life ; I was desperate to check Pixar's latest offering Cars . Trust me friends, you'll love this one for sure. The concept of cars being compared to humans with the basic similarities: 2 eyes ( headlights ), 2 hands ( front tyres ), 2 legs ( rear tyres ), a big fat mouth, etc. has been used in many animation videos. This one is altered a little bit with the eyes placed in the car's windscreen and headlights as nostrils...the big fat mouth stays where it is. Though the movie stretches to almost 2 hours, the scriptwriters have blended it well with a storyline that frequently throws a social message to the real-humans. You'll figure it out yourself. Not many know this movie honours the Pixar animator Glenn McQueen who died in 2002, and not much refs to Steve McQueen . The story is about a how an aggressive rookie sens...
Read more

One, Two, Three_, Comedy Riot!

Image
Being jobless is sometimez a good break in life provided you have a good cable connection ( like the 3-month old DishTV @ my place ) and tons of movies, music and sports to watch throughout the day, in short an excellent chance to be an honest couch-potato. A few days back, I stumbled upon this movie on ZeeMGM called One, Two, Three . Being a Monday morning, I initially thought this movie would put me 2 sleep again, and switched to HBO which was showing " The Matrix ". On 2nd thoughts, I told myself enough of the red & blue pills and rabbit holes (no disrespect to Matrix fans) , letz chekout One, Two, Three . Thoughts proved lucky for once, this is easily one of the most hilarious comedies I've ever seen, no doubt it was nominated for four awards in 1962, including the Laurel Awards " Top Comedy ", thanks to James_Cagney 300kmph dialogue delivery, so smooth and crystal clear that even a Britisher could understand. Note : Voice accent trainers and trainees i...
Read more

Bapooji 2 Gandhigiri...wat next?

Image
The LageRaho Munnabhai success has suddenly transformed the Father of the Nation to a new modern war hero, and has put him ahead in the league of elites like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and other non-violent heroes of the world. The popular Bapooji has been pushed to the backseat and given way for a cool-funky Gen-x name - Gandhigiri . Wats more, he is being hailed as the Comeback Man of the Millenium...OMG!! Across the media, this name is being popularised, and Gandhiji is merchandised 10 times better than Che Guevara ( now, thats wat I call stiff competition ) his photo being printed on mugs, T-shirts, bags and even on a mouse-pad ( sounds a bit lame ), but would u believe it? Gandhigiri is all across the net, on wikipedia Orkut community Mahatma Gandhi store Cafepress.org and what not...the list is huge!! I'm pretty sure there would be quiz contests all across the nation on the 2nd Oct only on Gandhiji and his principles, teachings, etc, no wonder the sale of boo...
Read more