140 There are only ten thousand cinema screens in India with a population of crores, which has 40 lakh seats. Their average filler rate is only 16 percent. Many districts of North India still do not have any cinema houses.
Bollywood is currently facing a serious crisis. At the Wave Summit held in Mumbai on this subject, actor Aamir Khan raised important questions as to why 98 percent of India's population has gone away from the cinema screen. He said that there are only ten thousand cinema screens in the population of 140 crores, of which there are 40 lakh seats, and their average filler rate is only 16 percent. There are many districts in North India where there is a shortage of cinema houses. The main reason for cinema houses being concentrated in malls and the end of single screen cinema is to end. Watching cinema in malls has become expensive, which has taken the form of a family outing.
Therefore, Aamir Khan's saying is partly correct that OTT culture is a reason for this problem. The films are available on OTT platforms a few days after its release, due to which many people do not go to see cinema by buying tickets. But does OTT really reach such a large population? By 2024, India is expected to have about 10 million paid subscribers. If their families are also included, then there may be about 40 crore people using OTT platforms. This number is equal to the total consumer market of India. Aamir Khan said that only three and a half crore people came to see the biggest hit films that have been done.
This means that the box office has now become a limited source of Bollywood's income. But the question is that at one time the trap of single screen cinema houses spread, where the common people used to watch films with peanuts with cheap tickets, why did Bollywood lose the market? Why was it stopped making films attracting everyone? Apart from this, what has been the effect of demonetisation and the changing political atmosphere of the country on film production? Since the people of the film industry wanted to remain silent on these questions, the discussion remained within a limited scope. But the problem is serious, it has become clear.
