Lights go out for Bangladesh’s cinema halls

In the 1980s, due to audience demand, Old Dhaka’s Manoshi Cinema Hall showed movies until the stroke of midnight. But now, with the drying up of the movie theatre audience, the venerable institution has closed its doors and turned off the lights, bdnews24.com reports.

Manoshi opened on Bangshal Road in 1936. It ended its journey of over 80 years in 2019. The signboard in front of the building now directs passersby to the Manoshi Complex, a shopping mall.

Though the cinema hall has closed, everyone still refers to the street as ‘Manoshi’.

Like Manoshi, the Shabistan, Cinema Palace (Rupmohol), Lion, Moon, Mollika, Gulistan, Rajmoni cinema halls are also gone. And yet, their names still linger in the memory.

According to the Bangladesh Motion Picture Exhibitors Association, an association of cinema hall owners, there were some 1,235 cinema halls in the country in 1998. In two decades, that number dropped to 120. Now, with the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, only about 60 are still running.

Manoshi, which had 755 seats for enraptured cinemagoers, has been transformed into a vessel for about 40 shops that sell electronics and electrical parts.

Khorshed Alam, 65, was once the manager of Manoshi Cinema Hall. He now manages the shopping mall that succeeded it. His father, Solaiman, was also an employee of the cinema hall.

Khorshed was born in Chandpur and joined Manoshi Cinema Hall as a booking agent in 1968, following in his father’s footsteps. He remained the manager until the hall closed.

“From 1980 to 1990, the cinema hall was in full bloom,” Khorshed said. “Men and women flocked to the theatre in groups. Families even competed every week to see who would watch movies first. Tickets seemed to vanish. Everyone had to catch the next show. And, on some nights, the demand was so intense, we stayed open past midnight.”

Even after paying various taxes, the hall owner was able to make money, he said.

Asked which movies energised the audience, Khorshed said: "Shabana, Bobita and Bulbul Ahmed's movies were the most popular. Shabana's 'Toofan' ran for over a year! The hall was vibrant since independence in 1971. The seats were packed for most of the shows.”

Saiful Islam, a resident of Old Dhaka, said that he watched the fantasy movie ‘Beder Meye Josna’ 14 times at Manoshi Cinema Hall.

“We had to queue to buy a ticket for movies at Manoshi Cinema Hall. Sometimes we’d even buy tickets from scalpers at double the price,” he said.

“But people aren’t very interested in movies now. The movies aren’t very good either.”

At that time, a group of about 10-12 scalpers worked outside the Manoshi Cinema Hall. It was a common sight.

Some of them even squeaked a living by buying tickets for Tk 1.5 and selling them for Tk 3.

Monu Mia, now 55, was one of them. He earned about Tk 200 a day by selling tickets on the black market, once a thriving underworld vocation.

But, when the audience began to decline after the nineties, he began selling vegetables. That is how he still provides for his family.

Asked how he evaded the police while selling 'black market' tickets, he said his ‘boss’ would handle the police. His job was to sell tickets and give money to the ‘boss’, who then took his share.

Monu Mia said: “The audience demand was very high back then. It was almost overflowing. I started selling tickets on the black market at a young age. I made a living with that money. But when the film industry deteriorated, and I couldn’t manage it anymore. People don't watch movies these days.”

Manager Khorshed Alam gave an idea of how far the audience at Manoshi Cinema Hall declined over the years. “One day I sold six tickets,” he said.

“One of them was for the premium seats in the back and five were for the regular seats in front. After a while, the guy who bought the premium seat came down and asked me if he could sit with the others. He was scared to watch the movie all alone.”

The losses kept climbing and eventually the hall couldn’t even pay its electricity and water bills, let alone employees’ wages, Alam said.

The owner was paying out of his own pocket to keep it open and he was eventually forced to rent space for shops.

Many other cinema halls have toppled in Dhaka. Only eight, including Balaka, Modhumita, Azad and Chitramahal, are still open.

WHY THE CURTAINS ARE COMING DOWN

Sudipta Kumar Das, the chief adviser to the Bangladesh Film Exhibitors' Association, said: “One after another, cinema halls have been shut down due to the impact of 'obscene' movies, halls losing audiences, a drought of quality movies and the terrible toll of movie piracy on the business.”

The middle-class audience turned away from the halls in the early nineties due to the introduction of “cut pieces” – strips of sexually explicit content spliced into films, he said.

But the surreptitious sexual content also drew another type of audience to movie theatres.

A task force was formed in 2007, under the caretaker government, to crack down on celluloid obscenity and piracy in the cinema.

The taskforce's campaign was able to restrict obscene content but was unable to take “respectable audiences” back to cinema halls, said Khorshed Alam Khasru, president of Film Producers Association.

“Back then, there was quite a large audience for ‘inserts’. Kakrail and FDC had been raided. Those kinds of films are no longer produced. We have movies of higher quality now.”

“However, the audience that enjoyed those films are no longer getting what they want at the halls. They don’t go anymore. And we couldn’t bring back the respectable audience. They think films are still obscene. And so, the seats are empty,” he added.

Black market ticket seller Monu Mia agreed that many viewers no longer go to the halls with their families because of obscenity.

Citing his own experience, he said: "I used to bring my mother and sister to the cinema hall. But I don’t any longer. Times are bad. Women are embarrassed when they see these scenes cropping up in movies.”

“I never used to worry when I went to the movies. Now I feel disgusted.”

As the audience dwindled, producers and directors also reduced the number of movies that were made, Khasru said.

Bangladesh used to produce over 120 films a year, now not even 30 films are made, he said.

‘CINEMA ON MOBILE’

Those who work with theatres also highlighted the progress of technology as a reason why audiences have turned away from halls.

According to Manoshi manager Khasru, viewers no longer want to spend money on cinema halls when free movies are available through VCRs, cable TVs, mobiles and laptops.

“The cinema halls were first battered when CD and DVD players became readily available. And now, viewers are watching movies for free on their handsets instead of going to the halls.”

Nuru Hossain, a security guard at the multi-storey building, which was once Moon Cinema Hall, said he had watched movies at the theatre since he was a boy.

“I watched the films ‘Shonkhonil Karagar’, ‘Shanto Keno Mastan’, ‘Beder Meye Josna’ at Moon Cinema Hall.”

He said he was a fan of Manna and Dipjol, two prominent actors of the time. "I watch movies at home now as the halls are closed," he said.

Asked how, he said, "Now I download movies on my mobile memory card and watch them at night on my way home."

The popularity of streaming services has also increased and many viewers are flocking to Amazon Prime, Netflix, ZEE5 and Hoichoi.

WHO GOES TO THE MOVIES?

Even as cinema halls have waned, Star Cineplex, Blockbuster Cinemas and Modhuban Cineplex have cropped up in Bangladesh. However, according to people in the film industry, cineplex is not suitable for the general audience of the country because ticket prices are too expensive.

Some say it is a form of entertainment for the 'elite'.

Khasru said: “Cineplex has never been for the ordinary people. The people who came to cinema halls will not go to a cineplex.”

“We need cinema halls in our country. They keep films alive. Many can’t afford a television at home, but will buy a ticket for Tk 20 to watch a movie in the cinema hall. As much as we modernise, the cinema halls are necessary for the people.”

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Hall owners say viewers may return to the halls in the future if quality movies are made, but the producers do not take major risks or make ‘event films’ as there are no viewers.

Still, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's special fund of Tk 10 billion for cinema halls offers a ray of hope to hall owners.

The scheme will allow hall owners to get long-term loans at a low-interest rate for renovation and modernisation of theatres. The fund is already at work.

But Khasru requests that funds be given to professional producers and directors to make good movies. He believes that new and better films are the only way to capture the hearts of audiences and revitalise the industry.