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At a multiplex, this cost is three to four times more. This trend has ended up isolating a large chunk of the cinema-hall audience, who are used to paying Rs 50-70 to watch a film in the theatres, experts say. Today, at a time when around 150 single-screen theatres are shutting down every year, the Hindi film industry, popularly known as Bollywood, seems to be in the middle of an identity crisis.Īs per a recent Ficci-EY report on India’s media and entertainment (M&E) sector, the decline in the revenues of single-screen theatres has been fuelled by their continued shutdown, primarily in the Hindi heartland, while films continue to be made for the upper class/multiplex audiences. What were once architectural heritage establishments-housing close to a thousand cinephiles at a time, who’d often show their admiration by throwing coins at the screen-have now become invisible, rusty structures almost an eyesore in a cityscape dotted with swanky malls and glitzy multiplexes. The story of India’s waning single-screen theatres is a dramatic one.
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