A few decades ago, the family of Mukund Sanghi, a film producer based in Udaipur, owned 20 cinemas in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh states. Over the years 19 of them have closed for various reasons. The only one remaining, the Ashoka in Udaipur, is now run by Fun Cinemas, a brand owned by the international exhibitor Cinépolis.
The Sanghi family is not alone in feeling the pain from diminishing foot traffic at single-screen s cinemas across India. Kaka Seth once owned three prime cinemas and had shares in one more in Delhi. He has either closed down or sold all of them except the Ritz, located next to the interstate bus terminal in the national capital.
According to Atul Mohan, a film trade analyst and editor of Complete Cinema, a film magazine published in Mumbai, 1,500 single-screen cinemas closed in the country in the last five years, bringing the total down to 8,500. Add to this an estimated 2,000 multiplex screens and the number is still only one-quarter of the total in the United States and one-half that of China. The latter had fewer movie screens than India only five years ago.
The shrinking number of screens means there is less exhibition space available for small-budget Hindi and vernacular language films -- Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bangla, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri and Marathi --in a country known for some of the most avid moviegoers in the world.
"Smaller movies do not get the right support in India," Mr Mohan told Asia Focus.
Mr Sanghi, who is producing an English-language movie with veteran actor Victor Banerjee in the lead, says it is regrettable that India has so few independent cinema productions, which could find a home in single-screen cinemas. Both the small theatres and independent cinema suffer as a result.
Out of the 1,500 single-screen cinemas that closed in the last five years, he said, many have gone dark in just the past few months. They included a number of once-popular venues in Delhi -- the Golcha, Vishal Cineplex, Sudershan, Aakash and Samrat.
The Minerva in Delhi has gone dark. Photos: Narendra Kaushik
The trigger for many of the recent closures was the sudden demonetisation of 500- and 1,000-rupee banknotes last November, part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign against corruption. The demonetisation created a widespread shortage of cash and many consumers cut back on discretionary spending to keep money for essentials.
As well, most single-screen cinemas are cash-only businesses and do not offer online ticket booking. Many were already reeling from high entertainment taxes, property taxes, licensing fees, power charges, piracy and a host of other factors.
The Indian film industry produces more than a thousand films every year, including regional films, and imports around 70 Hollywood movies (in English or dubbed in Hindi) on average. Only a handful of these movies do well at the box office.
Only about a dozen Hindi films out of the 225 released in 2016 made large profits at the ticket window. "Only 15 to 20 films on average do well in a year, which is not a good number to sustain the industry. We need to at least double the number of hits to make the single-screen cinema business sustainable," said Mr Mohan.
The Abhishek cinema in Delhi makes more money from McDonald's than from movies. Narendra Kaushik
Single-screen cinemas face many disadvantages compared with multiplexes. For one, the latter are part of chains such as PVR Cinemas, Inox, Cinépolis, Movietime, DT Cinemas and Carnival, and are in a much better position to bargain with film producers and distributors.
Normally in the first week of release for a film, they share the revenue on a 50:50 basis. This is not the case with single-screen theatres. They are either rented by distributors and producers or bound by a maximum-share clause that gives them anything between 700,000 and 900,000 rupees a week, regardless of how much more a film grosses.
"If the Plaza, which is part of the PVR group in Delhi, makes 2 million rupees [in ticket sales] in the first week it gets half of the revenue," explains Joginder Mahajan, a member of National Association of Motion Picture Distributors. "But the same is not applicable to the Regal, a single-screen theatre owned by an individual. It will be paid only 300,000 rupees as rent."
Many single-screen cinemas earn low fixed sums under their contracts with distributors even if a movie is a smash hit, says Joginder Mahajan, a member of the National Association of Motion Picture Distributors. Photos: Narendra Kaushik
As well, single-screen cinemas earn very little from screening advertisements and film trailers compared with the multiplexes. Then there's the gap in ticket prices, which range from 20 to 200 rupees at single-screen theatres but average around 60 rupees (32 baht) nationwide. In multiplexes, operators will charge whatever they think the market will bear, depending on the popularity of a film and its stars. That could be anywhere between 200 and 800 rupees at a multiplex in Delhi, but for Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, one of the most anticipated films of 2016, some PVR outlets were charging 2,200 rupees (1,150 baht) for the best seats in the house.
This means that even with just 30% average occupancy, the multiplexes are always profitable for producers and distributors. No wonder filmmakers prefer to release most of their prints on multiplex screens. In 2016, a number of top Hindi films such as Dear Zindagi, Kahani 2 and Befikre were released mostly in multiplexes.
Single-screen cinema owners accuse central and state governments of treating entertainment as their lowest priority. They cite high entertainment and property taxes, power bills and poor checks on piracy. "Cinema is the lowest priority for the government," said Rajat Gupta, owner of the Liberty in Delhi and the Nigar cinema in Ambala.
Shashank Raizada, the owner of the Delite, a two-screen cinema that is not part of a chain, regrets that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has not lowered the 40% entertainment tax despite 15 requests from the theatre owners' association since 2015. "The entertainment tax in Delhi is even more than the tax on alcohol and tobacco," he said.
Mr Mohan said that every time a film is released, the industry has to ask the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry to block some 1,200 websites in an attempt to check piracy. "Why can it not block them permanently?" he asked.
Another hurdle for single-screen theatre owners is the difficulty of expanding their physical premises or concerting to a multiplex. It can take months to get approvals, or permits might be denied because of zoning or heritage building regulations. The costs add up. Mr Raizada said he spent 250 million rupees adding a second screen to the Delite.
The Ritz Cinema in Delhi. Narendra Kaushik
OP Saini, manager of the Golcha which closed recently, said he was not allowed to convert his property because the Delhi state government did not have a policy applicable to such changes in the old city.
Kamal Kapur, a consultant with Vishal Cineplex, said the business had been losing between 700,000 and 800,000 rupees a month for last two and a half years, and would only reopen after adding five more screens in the future.
