Re-released films, digital cinema, home theatre: India
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Re-releases before home entertainment systems became popular
Mera Naam Joker (1970) flopped totally unexpectedly. Its distributors had booked cinema theatres for several weeks, expecting a blockbuster. Since it was the first major bomb in India, they allowed it to run for one full week, till the last show on Thursday.
(In the digital age after 2010, flop films are often pulled off by the 4th day, Monday. The number of shows of the other films being screened in that theatre is correspondingly increased.)
In the 1970s film distributors would book cinema theatres for several weeks depending on how confident they were of the success of their film. It was a gamble.
Mera Naam Joker’s distributors could not immediately find another A-list film to screen because distribution deals are finalised months, sometimes years, in advance. They did not know what to do with the theatres they had booked.
So, Desai & Co. pulled out the black and white Devdas (1955) from the cans and screened it in the colour era to recover some of the losses, which they did.
After that, during the 1970s and early 80s often when a film flopped, Devdas would be pulled out and screened as a filler till a new film was found. Devdas was the most popular, but hardly the only, filler.
Ageing cinema halls in the old downtown areas of most cities would screen re releases of once-popular films (and even old flops), sometimes because there was a pent-up nostalgic demand for them and sometimes because they had no other choice. Screening an old flop was sometimes better than screening a brand-new dud.
In those days, Raj Kapoor’s production house RK Films saw itself as too exclusive to ‘cheapen’ their old hits through frequent rereleases. Their blockbuster Sangam would be released after every few years but never as a filler.
Among English films, Gone With The Wind, My Fair Lady and Lawrence of Arabia had many releases in Indian metros, each release being commercially profitable. They were catering to a new generation which had heard of those films and was eager to see them. Quo Vadis (1951) was re released in India in the mid-1970s almost like a new film and ran for several weeks, which was unusual even for a new English-language film.
The only Indian film to be re released like a new film and storm the box office was Mughal-e-Azam (1960), which was colourised, blown up to CinemaScope and remastered with a digital Dolby soundtrack in 2004. Competing against blockbusters like Veer Zara it ran for several weeks throughout India.
Home entertainment systems/ 1981 onwards
VHS (video home system) arrived in India in the 1980s:
1981: Video libraries started to appear in Bombay
1984: There were around 500 video libraries, mainly in the suburbs and well-heeled areas
Initially, these libraries in the Hindi- Urdu-speaking parts of India rented out Pakistani television serials.
Within a year or two, video libraries reached every small town of India. Now they were renting out pirated versions of Indian films.
May 1988: India Today estimated that there were 15 lakh video cassette recorders (VCRs) in the country. In lower income areas these were not for private viewing alone. In congested urban areas as well as in villages, family rooms would be converted into illegal theatres screening pirated cassettes, CDs and DVDs on 21" TV screens for audiences of 10 or 20 people who paid a fraction of what they would at a theatre.
That not only put an end to the re – release era, educated middle-class audiences stopped going to cinema theatres even for first-run films. In many parts of India, including the small towns, cinema theatres were demolished and replaced by shopping malls.
Filmmakers fought an uphill battle against the underworld- (and Pakistani-) controlled piracy racket, which they lost. They came up with one technical solution after another but the pirates were one up on them. It was only around 1994, when Rajshri released only a few prints of Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! at a time, that the smart set started returning to cinema halls, but for first run films.
However, the era of re released films was over
1995: DD Movie Club
In 1995 DD Movie Club started showing old films, as well as relatively new films within two or three years of their theatrical run, on TV. Private movie TV channels came up in quick succession.
Where then was the question of re releasing films in movie halls?
Digital cinema
Before the coming of digital cinema, films were printed on 35mm celluloid film. Prints were very expensive and would cost the equivalent of roughly ₹1.25 crore each in 2024 terms. They would be screened initially in the state capitals and the metropolitan cities. After completing that run they would be physically taken to towns with the next biggest population. Cinema halls in the smallest towns would receive choppy, faded and scratched prints almost two years after their initial release, with several frames missing.
Thus the first run of any film took at least two years to complete. Films that ran for 25 weeks were called silver jubilee hits. A 50 week run was called a golden jubilee. And then there were diamond (60 weeks) and platinum (70 weeks) jubilees.
In the case of English language films normally just one print would arrive in India which would be taken from Bombay to Bangalore, Madras, Calcutta and then to Delhi. Sometimes Hyderabad would get that single print before Delhi. Smaller towns would follow. Delhi would often get films a year and a half or so after their international release, till right up to the early 2000s.
Digital cinema changed all that. Now Indian films would be screamed In the small gums towns on the same day as in Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. English films would be premiered in middle sized towns like Jammu the same day as in New York but, because of the time difference, a few hours earlier.
Now a totally new phenomenon started.
Because a film could be premiered in the entire country on the same day and because prints were not expensive, they could be shown in every neighbourhood of the big cities on the same day. Films had to recover their investment within the first week, make a profit in the second week and be lucky if they lasted much beyond the 5th or 6th week.
Metallic jubilees were over.
After that brief first run, you could see films initially on DVDs and then on OTTs.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar wrote in Business Standard on Jan 20 2013:
“The first digital cinema roll out in India began in 2003. Mukta-Adlabs, a joint venture between Subhash Ghai’s Mukta Arts and Manmohan Shetty’s Adlabs (now part of Reliance) seeded more than 50 theatres with Rs 10 lakh worth of equipment in each. This was primarily a server and a projector, the two key pieces of hardware. This was done in exchange for advertising rights, revenue share or a flat fee. The whole project fizzled out albeit after revealing the promise of digital cinema.”
The first Indian digital film was producer Benzy Martin ‘s Moonnamathoral (Malayalam/ 2006), which was distributed via satellite to cinemas in August 2006.
Qube Cinema launched a non-DCI 3D digital cinema server in 2010, which made stereoscopic digital cinema accessible to regional and independent filmmakers.
Guzaarish (Hindi- Urdu/ 2010), was the first Hindi- Urdu feature to be mastered in 4K resolution.
By 2010, digital cinema had reached the small towns.
2024: Re releases resume
All figures are from [KoiMoi.com ]
Vijay’s Ghilli (2004) was re-released in 2024 with unexpectedly astonishing results.
Some 2024 revenues:
Tumbbad (2018/ 2024) ₹26.70 crore in 2024. The film had flopped in 2018
Ghilli (2004/ 2024) ₹26.50 crore in 2024
Sholay 3D (1975/ 2014 in 3D/ 2024) ₹13 crore
Laila Majnu (2018/ 2024) ₹11.50 crore, which was fantastic for a film that had flopped initially
