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Filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee, known for his critically acclaimed films like LSD and Shanghai, has voiced his concerns about the shifting landscape of the Indian film industry. In a recent interview, Banerjee highlighted the detrimental effects of the multiplex culture and the commercialisation of cinema.
According to Banerjee, the demise of single-screen theatres and the rise of expensive multiplexes have created an unsustainable business model. “If you kill single screens, if you make extremely expensive multiplexes in the malls… and you are setting yourself up for somebody to walk in into a vacuum because you have made the multiplexes but now the multiplexes are now very expensive to maintain so it has to run to a very different business standard,” the filmmaker told Social Ketchup Binge.
This shift has led to a monopolisation of the industry, where big studios and distributors dictate the terms. “All kinds of relationships with the multiplexes, with the big studios, the distributors and decide how much time, in the multiplexes, a film would be, basis of its star power, basis its perceived value.” This, in turn, affects marketing strategies and the overall viability of smaller, independent films.
Banerjee shared his personal struggles with the system. “These are the kind of problems that I have always faced. What has happened is, after the killing of the single screens, and (building) the multiplex and the (Rs) 100 crore budgets and extremely inflated star fees which weigh down a film in such a way that for it to make money, it has to really go for an all or nothing approach.”
He believes the current landscape stifles diversity and creativity in mainstream cinema. “It is not really a place where variety can exist. It is a place where you have to throw in a lot of capital and hog everything else and not let anything else survive because the money you give that leeway, you will sort of disappear.”
Banerjee’s experiences with his film LSD exemplify the challenges faced by innovative storytellers. “So, if you are doing something absolutely new with no known faces… then you have to, something we’ll have to give. So you know you are going to be edged out.”
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