Pathaan, fan clubs, and single screens

Does Pathaan turn the whole rationale of marketing films on its head? Will it help revive single screens?

Those are the two questions the success of Siddharth Anand ’s Pathaan (Yashraj Films), which released on January 25, throws up. The Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) starrer is now well on its way to becoming one of the biggest hits in Indian cinema, with close to Rs 1,000 crore in worldwide gross, so far. Khan, who’d withdrawn from the big screen for over four years, is clearly back with a bang.

The numbers are more astounding if you know that unlike every other Yashraj release there was no high-decibel marketing campaign around Pathaan. In fact, considering its budget (Rs 250 crore) and cast (Khan, Deepika Padukone, John Abraham) there was no noise at all. There were some posters, publicity material, some sound bites and several 10-15 minute AskSRKs on Twitter. But that is it. There was no press interaction, interviews with cast, no conferences, podcasts or big appearances on say the Kapil Sharma Show or others. There was nothing to indicate that a huge release was on its way.

That is where Khan’s fandom, estimated at 3.5 billion people by Time, stepped in. His fan clubs from Beed, Jalgaon, Nashik to Austria, Germany, and Australia were breathless with anticipation. And they let the whole world know that through Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Josh and what not. Social media gave them a voice that they have never had. Most used it to discuss the songs, the teaser, the trailer and every little detail about the film. They were the ones who booked entire theatres when tickets went on sale, bringing in Rs 50 crore globally even before the film hit the screens. This brought in something rarely heard of in Indian cinema these days — a record “advance.” After that, word-of-mouth about the film, a complete entertainer, took over.

This kind of fandom and its function as an extension of the marketing for a film is common in Tamil and Telugu cinema. It is unusual in Hindi. This “inadvertent mobilisation” then is a point of note in the success of Pathaan. Khan is a huge star globally, so maybe this can’t be replicated for all films. But it certainly will start becoming a key factor in the marketing of the big releases. Already studios reach out to fan clubs with publicity material and press releases much like they do with journalists.

Pathaan’s success has brought cheer to single screens, especially in the Hindi speaking markets. According to trade reports, 25 screens reopened in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh among a few other states. Can its success, and that of films such as RRR and Pushpa, help revive single screens in the Hindi market?

From about 10,000 over a decade back, India is now down to about 8,700 screens. Of these, about 3,500 are multiplex screens, which continue to increase their numbers even as single screens keep shutting down.

Their business models are a world apart. Multiplexes work on a portfolio basis. They have 4-6 screens of anywhere between 100-400 seats and vary the number of shows, their time, ticket prices and even food as per the film and how it is doing. This mitigates the risk inherent in depending on one film or one source of revenue. Multiplexes usually operate on revenue-share basis. The big ones get 50 per cent or more of a film’s revenues.

Single screens on the other hand have to pay a minimum guarantee to distributors. This is because an estimated 2,500-3,000 of the 5,200 single screens are still not computerised. That makes it difficult to gauge how many tickets are sold and how much money is collected. Therefore, the trade and studios prefer a minimum revenue upfront with some agreements for a split in the overflow. There rarely has been any these past few years.

The cost of running a single screen, each with 800-1,000 seats, is simply impossible to maintain without the hall filling up several times a year. The need for films that people will make the effort to come to the theatre for has been the challenge of every cinema for over three decades now — ever since the introduction of satellite TV, then video and DVD. With video streaming in the play the watching of most edgy films and series has shifted online. Currently, what seems to be determining occupancy in theatres is big stylised, event films like RRR or Pathaan.

This is perhaps truer for Hindi than Telugu or Tamil cinemas. In Tamil Nadu, the local government regulates ticket prices. This has ensured that multiplexes, which generally have higher average prices, haven’t gained ground. In the two Telugu speaking states, large producers control single screens and determine the timing and nature of a release. This backward integration then keeps the market hydrated with big, spectacle hits.

Of the Rs 19,100 crore in total revenues the film business made in 2019, the last normal year, Hindi had the largest share at over 50 per cent. The return to the theatre of the Hindi audience then is good news. However, just having four large films a year is not enough. “You need those medium budget film hits like Drishyam that will keep the theatres occupied in between the big tentpole hits,” says Akshay Rathi, director, Aashirward Theatres, a chain of 17 single screen theatres across Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. For many single screen owners, selling the prime land most of them sit on and putting it in a fixed deposit is more lucrative than running the theatre on a handful of hits.

The business is just back to normal. Film folk are figuring out how to serve this new post-pandemic audience. For now, hopes of a full-scale revival are high.

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