Today the curtain will come down for the last time at Regal Cinema, New Delhi, a single screen theater which just couldn’t survive the tornado of the multiplexes. Those who were not part of the cinema scene in the ‘60s, ‘70s, cannot even imagine what it was like then. A film was released with a star-studded premiere and fans would throng the sidewalks – just to get a glimpse of their heroes, not to take selfies. The film was on celluloid, each print had a cost, so release was in limited screens, often staggered in various cities so that the number of prints could be minimized and prints could be transported from one city to another as required. There was also a government imposed cap on the ticket price for cinema tickets, and movie halls could charge no more than Rs. 5 or Rs 10 or something ridiculous for a ticket. Then there was an incidence of entertainment tax in addition (now you understand why they closed ?). First Day-First Show was still important for movie buffs and many black marketers are legendary for having made fortunes selling ‘dus ka ek sau bees’ in the first few days of a blockbuster movie. They still pray to Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand to thank them for the blessings. The films were mostly identical – case of lost and found; twins separated and reunited; there was always a Hero, Heroine, Villain and Comedian. Music was usually phenomenal which is why so many old songs are still remembered even today. The success of a film was measured by how long it ran. There would be a Silver Jubilee for completing 25 Weeks, and for some even a Golden Jubilee for completing 50 weeks. And then there were exceptional films like Sholay which would run all 4 shows for over 5 years at Minerva, or a film like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge which would run to an audience for 20 years at Maratha Mandir. Entering a Cinema Hall meant leaving reality behind for those three hours and living the dream world. Everybody knew that.
I remember in NDA too, there were three different movies every week. One Hindi Film on Sunday evening and English movies on Wednesday and Saturday. Then there would sometimes be the Tom & Jerry Cartoon Festivals on Sunday Morning too. Our parents tried hard to restrict our movie viewing, but I think they gave up after a while. For me, I was not always able to sit still on my seat and just watch a film. I had made friends with the projectionist, and many times, after the interval, once the lights went off, I would quietly go up into the projection room and be lost in my own world of celluloid. I would watch him as he expertly threaded the film reel through the projector, then a quick change from shutting one projector to starting the other for the next reel as soon as the previous one finished, then going back and changing the carbon electrodes (for the arc light) and getting the next reel ready on the other projector, a totally choreographed sequence of events, which ensured that the audience enjoyed a flawless viewing without a break. Even in Bombay, at the best movie halls, I have seen reels being shown out of sequence, but never in NDA. For most parts, I would just watch and admire him as he went about his work, but as time passed, he would allow me to assist him by letting me rewind the movies on the rewinding bench, on a contraption that looked like a charkha. Made me feel really important. Often, there would be small film strips that would get cut of while threading, and I would take them with me as souvenirs and look at them on my View Master.
Things have now changed. Movies don’t come on celluloid anymore. They come on Hard Disk. Western Digital and Seagate proudly advertise this. Shooting on film was expensive, each extra retake while shooting meant an extra cost. Then the editing, post-processing, and developing it to get a Master Negative. And finally, making the required number of positives was another expensive and time-consuming affair. At times, there was even a variation in quality from print to print. There were several cases of Film Laboratories holding producers to ransom by refusing to release the prints of the films until they had received their full payments. But now, with digital, you can shoot as much as you like, view the result right away, do as many different takes as you want, mix and match, edit, simply clone a disk and make as many copies as you like – all identical, flawless and top-class. Even the Censor Board insists that movies submitted to it should now be only in the Digital Format. in those days a theatre had just 4 shows a day – 12, 3, 6, and 9. Today a blockbuster movie is released on over 1500 screens, and often at a single multiplex, you will find 20 – 30 shows of the same movie starting at intervals of maybe 10 to 15 minutes. But three days later it is history and another movie has taken its place.
And that is what I was wondering – the NDA Assembly Hall whose projection room I had become so familiar with, must have gone Digital too. It must have had no other option. The romance would have gone too. Looking with awe and respect at the 12 or more canned reels of celluloid of the just-released blockbuster is vastly different from looking at a dumb MultiTB Hard Disk which can’t even be rewound.
What is ironic is that the Regal Theatre has made way for Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum and the most popular exhibits at the museum are – you guessed it – wax replicas of Bollywood Stars!