Cinema goers inquiring about the ticket price from the black marketeers during the first day showing of the Hollywood flick, Fast & Furious after the decade long lull at the Usha cinema hall in the heart of Imphal.
On the opening day of the film today the box office recorded three sold out shows.
“The turn out of the audience was beyond our expectations, we have heard the clamour of the public yearnings to see English movies at the theatres and finally decided to take a trial and screened this Hollywood film. It’s been a long, long time since we saw such a packed audience”, said a beaming Syamsunder, manager of USHA cinema hall to IFP.
He further stated that the last English film screened at the theatre was “Star Wars” way back in 1999.
“After the ban of Hindi films by insurgents, the English movies also died out as modern Manipuri digital films edged in to fill the gap and have been totally dominating the industry ever since, a Manipuri digital film was screened in our hall till yesterday, we will see the developments and further try to upgrade our sound system to a more state of the art device to cater to the upbeat crowd, hopefully if the turn out of the fans continue like today”, he said.
A movie goer Kumar candidly said “ Today’s audience is something we have never witnessed before, the crowd consisted of ladies and family members mostly till yesterday, now it’s the young ones, the ‘Yo’ crowd today”, he said. He ushered this reporter inside the hall to point out some fans sitting at the passageway. “It’s a packed crowd, they insisted that I let them in”, he added.
Ibemhal, a woman selling tickets (locally known as ‘Kala Bazar’) said that they had a field day in selling their tickets. “Normally for Manipuri films, we get an average of Rs 50 profit per show from selling tickets and most of the time we have tickets left over. Today we sold out early and got more profits”, she added happily.
Talking to some youngsters, they unanimously voiced satisfaction after watching the action packed film.
Jimmy, a Hollywood movie buff cheerfully said, “Now, my yearning to watch the top blockbusters on the big screen is finally fulfilled, Manipuri films have become sort of mundane and the plots are mostly similar besides it’s no fun to watch the Hollywood movies in DVD’s all the time by yourself, the thrill or ambience of a movie theatre is different”, he said.
The Hall has the largest capacity of 900 seats among the three surviving theatres in the heart of the city namely Friends Talkies and Pratap Talkies.It conducts three shows daily beginning from 11 am, 2 pm and 4.45 pm. The tickets costs Rs 15, 20 and 25 for front, rear and balcony seats.
The other prominent theatres Mini Friends, Victory, Shankar Talkies, Mini Shankar, Asha and Jina hall, Imphal Talkies have become shopping centers and educational institutes following the ban imposed on Hindi films by a militant group since 1999.
USHA Theatre targets the global release of the latest from the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallow part 2” as it’s next release.
Posted: 2011-06-25
June 27, 2011 at 10:46 am 0thIST
Good… very very good indeed. This time no diktats from the naharols please. Let us not Talibanise our society. Pray!
June 27, 2011 at 10:00 am 0thIST
Goodness…finally…I remember the last movie i watched in the valley was Tomb Raoider way back in 2001..The youngsters of the valley have been deprived of the thrills and joy of a Hollywood blockbuster for way too long. It was sad to see the other theaters i used to frequent as a student has now been converted to a mall or a educational institute. This is welcome news and i think others should follow suit and give the youngsters and the old folk s the chance of watching movies in theater . Next time i come down to Imphal i will make sure i catch a Hollywood flick in one of the theaters.
June 26, 2011 at 4:42 am 0thIST
well initiated….hoping for more!!