THE RETURN OF THE BOLLYWOOD POTBOILER

Hindi filmmakers have woken up to the need to cater to the lowest common denominator in the audience

- LataJha

One can’t be entirely sure of making it to the Inox theatre on the top floor of the PVS Mall in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. The elevator has many buttons missing, while loose wires tell you to take the stairs. Much of the rest of the mall, in Meerut’s Shastri Nagar locality, in the heart of the city, is under construction, with dust and cement filling the air. Only a Westside outlet, a McDonalds and a local restaurant are open the morning after Diwali.

Once on the top floor though, a different world opens up, one packed with eager Hindi movie fans of actor Salman Khan. The sparkling Inox property houses three screens, two of which are equipped with 3D, which means they can showcase tentpole Hollywood flicks as well as the local language movies youngsters lap up. Salman’s latest action film, Tiger 3, is playing on all three screens with a huge crowd waiting outside one auditorium for the next show. A six-minute delay has made these fans furious and the operational staff is cleaning away inside at a furious pace so as to not rile them further.

“Things have been much better for us since Pathaan this year. Then, of course, there was Gadar 2 and Jawan. What has changed post covid is that people aren’t willing to step out just because it’s the weekend—they are selective and want value for time and money," says a member of the staff at Inox. This year marked the best Diwali post the onset of covid for the theatre, the staff added, with 3,200 footfalls clocked on the festival day. By 11 am, the manager was confident of exceeding even that figure.