New Delhi, India – When Raghav Bikhchandani discovered on social media that Gangs of Wasseypur, the acclaimed Indian blockbuster launched in 2012, was all set to hit the theatres in New Delhi once more, he knew he couldn’t miss it this time and even alerted a number of movie golf equipment and WhatsApp teams he was a part of.
For the 27-year-old copy editor, getting to observe the two-part movie felt like “lastly being launched to probably the most memed film in Indian popular culture” as he discovered himself commuting for 3 hours on an August afternoon to a seedy theatre within the metropolis’s Subhash Nagar neighbourhood to catch the film on the large display.
“I got here into Hindi cinema a lot later in life, and I had missed out on seeing this on the large display. After I was finding out overseas in Chicago, even NRIs in my college would quote dialogues from this film however I had by no means gotten an opportunity to see it. So I knew I couldn’t miss this chance,” he advised Al Jazeera.
Based mostly in a mining city in jap India on a decades-long feud between rival gangs primarily dealing in coal, “the black diamond”, the Anurag Kashyap-directed duology attained recognition and demanding acclaim following its full-house premier on the 2012 Cannes Movie Pageant in France.
With an ingenious solid, sharp dialogues, pitch-black comedy and gritty setting, the five-hour epic crime and political drama cemented its standing as one of the vital memorable Indian movies of the previous decade.
However it isn’t simply Gangs of Wasseypur. Bollywood, India’s much-vaunted Hindi movie trade based mostly in Mumbai, in addition to regional movie studios unfold internationally’s most populous nation, are witnessing an unprecedented surge in re-releases of movies celebrated prior to now, some going way back to the Sixties.
Dozens of such movies have hit theatres in lots of cities this yr – way over ever earlier than – because the nation’s practically $200bn movie trade seems to be to revive its fortunes after taking a number of hits lately.
In a rustic like India, which produces extra movies a yr than Hollywood, cinema is basically a mass medium, most loved at midnight and dreamy confines of a movie theatre displaying its newest providing on a 70mm display. However the coronavirus pandemic hurt Indian films – as it did with movies globally. Since 2022, theatres internationally have been struggling to get individuals again, a disaster compounded by the rise of on-line streaming and OTT platforms.
India reeled beneath two lethal COVID-19 waves in 2020 and 2021, forcing the closure of practically 1,500 to 2,000 theatres – a majority of them single-screen cinemas, which couldn’t stand as much as the company franchise-driven multiplexes principally seen in buying malls mushrooming throughout the nation.
Then there may be the rising price of creating a full-length movie. Stars, primarily males, at the moment are paid an unprecedented charge, some amounting to just about half of a movie’s price range. Furthermore, the expense of their entourage – make-up and publicity crew, vainness vans, lodges and journey – places additional monetary pressure on producers and studios. Lately, outstanding producer and director Karan Johar advised journalists the star charges in Bollywood have been “not in contact with actuality”.
To make issues worse, Bollywood lately has been witness to a string of flops, with even large multiplex chains resembling PVR INOX incurring heavy losses – and subsequently pressured to be extra imaginative of their choices.
It was in opposition to such a backdrop that theatre homeowners and filmmakers determined to re-release previous movies. A lot of movies which have returned to theatres have been runaway successes the primary time round, whereas others weren’t – till now.
PVR INOX’s lead strategist Niharika Bijli was quoted in a report in September this yr as saying the chain re-released a whopping 47 movies between April and August this yr. Whereas the typical occupancy for a brand new launch throughout this era stood at 25 %, re-releases loved the next common of 31 %, in keeping with the studies.
Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha, whose 2002 hit Tum Bin was launched once more this yr to a lot fanfare, advised Al Jazeera nostalgia has “a big function to play right here”.
“There are often two sorts of viewers moving into for the re-releases. The primary is the individuals who missed these movies in theatres. Possibly they noticed it on OTT and felt like having a theatrical expertise of it. Or there’s individuals who have recollections, nostalgia connected to a movie, and need to revisit it,” he mentioned.
Indian movie commerce analyst Taran Adarsh agreed, saying the success of Tumbbad, a 113-minute mythological horror initially launched in 2018, was proof that the components of reruns was working. “It’s additionally about nostalgia, some individuals may need to expertise the magic of a movie on the large display once more,” he mentioned.
Tumbbad didn’t do effectively when it first got here out. However with rising recognition and demanding acclaim, the movie was re-released in September this yr and went on to carry out considerably higher than the yr it hit the large display.
“When it re-released, Tumbbad truly collected over 125 % extra income in its opening weekend than it did again in 2018. Folks will watch issues if there may be word-of-mouth publicity and theatre homeowners and distributors realize it. Superstars like Shah Rukh Khan and Salman [Khan] are coming again to theatres, because of Karan Arjun getting a re-release,” mentioned Adarsh, referring to the actors, who, regardless of being of their late 50s, proceed to be the highest two reigning stars in Bollywood.
First launched in 1995, Karan Arjun, a rebirth-themed motion drama directed by actor-turned-director Rakesh Roshan, is about to hit Indian theatres on Friday to mark its thirtieth anniversary, with a model new trailer.
Kuch bandhan aise hote hai, jinke liye ek janam poora nahi hota! #KaranArjun re releasing in cinemas worldwide from Nov twenty second!@RakeshRoshan_N #RajeshRoshan @BeingSalmanKhan @itsKajolD #MamtaKulkarni #Rakhee #AmrishPuri @tipsofficial @PenMovies #30yearsOfKaranArjun pic.twitter.com/D7tih2QwMf
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) November 13, 2024
Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, broadly considered one of many pioneers of India’s so-called artwork cinema motion of the Seventies, advised Al Jazeera the choice to re-release such movies is taken by the producers. Lately, Benegal himself noticed the restoration and re-release of his 1976 traditional, Manthan, India’s first crowdfunded movie for which greater than 500,000 farmers contributed two rupees every to inform the story of their motion that based Amul, India’s largest dairy cooperative.
“As a result of it’s an advanced and time-consuming course of, you solely select to revive these motion pictures that you just want to protect for lengthy. Thankfully for us, it labored out effectively. The restoration was wonderful and we bought an incredible response from the audiences,” Benegal mentioned, including that the way in which a movie is made, and never simply its themes, contributes to its intergenerational enchantment.
“A film could be very a lot a part of your individual time. A movie’s theme can get dated in a short time. If individuals throughout generations are reacting to it, then it may be that its message appealed to them,” he advised Al Jazeera.
And it’s not simply Bollywood – or Hindi cinema – that’s cashing in on nostalgia for the olden days and their motion pictures.
Mahanagar, the 1963 Bengali traditional by India’s most celebrated filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, was launched in theatres throughout India – to some spirited celebration by the followers of Ray, who in 1992 was awarded an honourary Oscar award for a lifetime of acclaimed work.
Down south, megastars resembling Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Chiranjeevi and Mohanlal additionally noticed their standard hits making a comeback to the screens. Rajinikanth, 73 and Haasan, 70, are two of probably the most profitable actors in Tamil language cinema, having fun with a cult following.
Sri, who solely goes by one identify, is a advertising and marketing skilled in Chennai, the capital of the southern Tamil Nadu state. She advised Al Jazeera it was the lure of Rajinikanth that first prompted her curiosity within the re-releases round her.
“The primary time I heard about re-releases was when Rajinikanth’s Baashha was being screened once more. The film was initially launched in 1995 after I was an toddler, so I by no means bought round to watching it on the large display though it’s a cult traditional. My older sisters have been influenced by nostalgia and needed to go, so I additionally joined them,” she mentioned.
Equally, Haasan’s Indian (1996) and Gunaa (1991) additionally hit the theatres this yr, as did Chiranjeevi’s Indra (2002) to have a good time his 69th birthday and Mohanlal’s Manichitrathazhu (1993).
Ajay Unnikrishnan, a journalist based mostly in Bengaluru, the capital of the southern Karnataka state, mentioned the pattern of re-releasing previous classics additionally marks “a type of cultural resistance”, significantly in gentle of the poor efficiency of most Bollywood flicks as we speak.
“We simply noticed the discharge of the third sequel of Bhool Bhulaiyaa, a Hindi franchise, solely weeks after the re-release of Mohanlal’s Manichitrathazhu, the unique Malayalam film that Bhool Bhulaiyaa relies on. So I see this as a type of cultural resistance as a result of Manichitrathazhu is the unique. It’s so totally different, had extra inventive worth. Bhool Bhulaiyaa appropriated it,” he mentioned.
Unnikrishnan mentioned reruns should not a rarity in southern India’s “superstar-driven” trade. “Re-releases have at all times been there, it’s simply that persons are taking extra discover now as a result of as we speak there’s a dearth of films with standard enchantment,” he mentioned.
Consultants and movie commerce analysts agree.
Ira Bhaskar, former professor of cinema research at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru College, mentioned the present phenomenon is just a repackaging of what has lengthy existed.
“Earlier than the period of multiplexes, movies have been in actual fact re-screened fairly often. If there was a Hindi film popping out of Bombay [now Mumbai], it was fairly frequent to see that movie, say a yr later in a smaller metropolis or city like Varanasi,” Bhaskar advised Al Jazeera.
Whereas Adarsh agreed that the present pattern is a “continuation of what we used to witness within the Seventies and Eighties”, he additionally pointed to an important distinction: the inflow of on-line streaming and folks switching from 70mm screens to smartphones, forcing theatres to compete with different viewing choices.
“However I don’t suppose there’s any competitors as a result of cinema is cinema,” he advised Al Jazeera.
“The sensation of watching a film on an enormous display is so distinctive and easily can’t be matched. There’ll at all times be individuals who need that.”
