'The system is dead': Shekhar Kapur on how theatres is a game of monopoly

The transition from the magic of the big screen experience, complete with popcorn, candy and push back chairs, to the small screen has been rapid as audiences adapt to life under lockdown and filmmakers resize their offerings in keeping with the times?

With the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, cinemas have downed their shutters and digital platforms are stepping up to meet the growing entertainment demands of millions of people across the world and in India spending their days confined to their homes. Reading the writing on the screen, production houses and distributors have already moved their big-screen releases to digital platforms.

Amid the ongoing debates and discussions, director Shekhar Kapur took to his Twitter handle and wrote, "With only 9500 cinema screens in India for 3 main languages and few others, theatrical bussiness is a game of monopoly. If you monopolise theatres, you control the star system. Or better, you create a star system for your profit. Oh well, theatrical is dead. The system is dead" [sic]

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Shekhar Kapur a few days back predicted what the future holds for the theatres. "Theatres are not going to open for atleast a year. So all hype around first weeks bussiness of 100+ crores is dead," Kapur claimed.

He further added, "So the theatrical Star System is dead. Stars will have to go to existing OTT platform or stream films themselves through their own apps. Technology is quite simple." [sic] Reacting to Kapur's tweet, director Ram Gopal Varma wrote, "That sounds pretty much like a doomsday prediction for an era" [sic]

The fear is that films meant for the big screen will never be as effective on small screens like TV, Video or phone.

99% of the ardent fans of #MrIndia have never ever seen Mr India on the big screen. And continue to enjoy it on smaller screens.

Its the content that matters!

— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) July 15, 2020

(with PTI inputs)