Lack of screens leave distributors high and dry

KOZHIKODE: Movie buffs in Kozhikode are losing out latest movies as the city is facing shortage of cinema houses to screen movies. The city, along with its suburbs, was once a haven for movie-goers with more than 20 cinema houses to screen movies which is now reduced to a mere six.Release of the movies ‘Collector’ and ‘Manushyamrigam’ were delayed by a week.Dileep-starrer ‘Film Star’ is yet to find its way to Kozhikode even after a week of its state release. “A Suresh Gopi-starrer was supposed to screen four shows per day at least for a week after the release.But the distributors had to settle for two shows per day as the movie was released one week earlier at other stations and new movies are put on wait,” said Kannan, assistant manager of Kairali and Sree.The cinema houses also can’t accommodate small budget films as multi-starrer and big budget films are already in queue. “The wide release system makes it possible to release movies all over the state except for Kozhikode.” The present crisis started after Apsara was closed down for construction recently.Radha, Coronation, Kairali, Sree, Crown and Ganga are the six cinema houses that are screening films in the city at present. Davison, Pushpa, Blue Diamond and Sangam have already been closed down or demolished.“We are not able to release movies in the city simultaneously with the state release.This causes loss for the film distributors,” said V P Madhavan Nair, film producer and distributor.As the number of movies that are being released is high, the owners of cinema houses have to cut down shows per day or change the movie even if it is doing well.“A distributor would suffer an approximate loss of Rs 5 lakh if the movie reaches the cinema house a week late,” Nair added.A solution to the present crisis would be the upcoming Multiplex theatre at RP mall, which would have six screens and could accommodate more than 1,000 viewers at a time.“We are planning to give people a very different film viewing experience with state-of- the-art technology. The work would be completed by Onam,” said C S Natarajan, managing director of PVS Films.