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Tupur Chatterjee discusses how middle-class women transformed India’s screen and exhibition industries

Image courtesy of interviewee. September 17, 2024

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This video discusses the evolution of film exhibition and movie-going culture in India over the past 25 years, highlighting the impact of multiplex theaters, which first emerged in 1997. This video shift from single-screen cinemas, which had predominated for decades, is examined in terms of its socio-cultural effects, especially in cities like New Delhi, where the first multiplexes were established.

The author emphasizes the role of New Delhi as a testing ground for new entertainment technologies and designs due to its status as the capital. The research for the book includes ethnographic studies, interviews with industry stakeholders (like PVR cinemas), and access to archives of family-owned single-screen cinemas, providing insights into the transition from traditional cinema to the multiplex model.

Initially, single-screen cinemas retained a degree of popularity due to lower ticket prices, accessible locations, and a rich cultural history. However, as multiplexes evolved and catered to the growing middle class with increased disposable income, single screens began to decline, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of streaming services.

This video highlights the architectural significance and societal dynamics of both cinema types, noting that single screens often catered to working-class audiences and were stratified by class and gender. In contrast, multiplexes, typically located in malls, have become more socially acceptable spaces where families and women can attend films, altering the demographic of moviegoers.

The book aims to connect the fields of media studies and architecture, arguing that both play integral roles in contemporary cinema culture. It proposes that understanding multiplexes and their setting within urban contexts of India reveals deeper insights into cultural politics, gender dynamics, and historical narratives unique to the region. The author stresses the importance of understanding these changes as part of a broader media environment that has evolved since the late 20th century, influenced by technological advancements and shifting social norms.

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Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Transformation of Movie Going Culture**: The video discusses the significant changes in film exhibition and movie-going culture in India over the past 25 years, particularly highlighting the emergence of multiplex cinemas since the opening of India's first multiplex in 1997. This shift has marked a departure from the long-standing single-screen cinema culture.

2. **Research Methodology**: The study is based in New Delhi and employs a combination of ethnographic approaches, archival research, and industrial ethnography, including interviews with executives at PVR Cinemas and owners of traditional single-screen cinemas. This comprehensive methodology allows an exploration of both corporate and familial perspectives in the cinema industry.

3. **Impact on Single-Screen Cinemas**: The video notes that initially, single-screen cinemas maintained popularity despite the rise of multiplexes due to their affordability and accessibility. However, as disposable incomes increased among the Indian middle class, multiplexes began to dominate the market, leading to the decline and closure of many single-screen cinemas, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. **Gender and Space Dynamics**: The transition from single-screen cinemas to multiplexes has altered social dynamics concerning gender and space. Multiplexes are seen as more secure and welcoming environments, particularly for women, contrasting with the perceived risk associated with single-screen cinemas, which were often viewed as unsafe or intimidating.

5. **Cultural and Architectural Insights**: The video emphasizes the need to understand multiplex cinemas within the broader convideo of cultural history, urban anxieties, and architectural changes in India. It suggests that cinema-going is a complex act influenced by various industries and societal factors, integrating discussions from media studies and architectural perspectives to address how these spaces are constructed and perceived.

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Here are some key quotes from the video you :

1. **On the Shift in Cinema Culture:**
- "Of the motivations was really to capture the many changes that have happened in, uh, film, exhibition, and movie going in India in the last 25 years."
- "This is a huge change because for almost eight decades before the arrival of the multiplex, we had only the single screen cinema and a very different culture of movie going."

2. **Research Focus:**
- "One of the things that my book studies is really this big shift and what this shift can tell us about how Multiplex has really transformed India's entertainment cultures in the last 25 years."

3. **Multiplex and Single Screen Cinemas:**
- "The single screens held quite well against the multiplexes because the ticket price of the multiplex is 300 times what it used to cost to go."
- "With the multiplex, of course there were... economic and class barriers in place."

4. **Impact of COVID-19:**
- "The multiplexes... were able to sustain the economic glow of COVID-19. But the single screens largely shut shop."

5. **Architectural and Gender Insights:**
- "The single screen cinema that architecturally it was a very interesting space. So there were thousand seaters... There was the balcony on top, which was priced slightly higher, which was a place for families and women."

6. **Social Dynamics:**
- "The multiplex... these are not places that can be imagined devoid of women at any time of the day or night."
- "The real shift happened from the imagination of the spectator as predominantly a sub man to a consuming middle class woman."

7. **Historical Convideo:**
- "This is a change between media and the middle class that has been happening since the 1980s with the arrival of privatized television."

8. **Cinema as a Dense Practice:**
- "I hope that the book is able to show the readers... that going to the cinema, which comes across as a simple act, is actually quite a dense and nuanced thing."

9. **Interdisciplinary Approach:**
- "What my book does is that it opens this interdisciplinary conversation between media studies and architecture."

10. **Cultural Specificity:**
- "When you come into India... and you place the mall and multiplex in a longer arc of architectural history... a very different story emerges."

These quotes capture critical insights from the research on the evolution and cultural impact of cinema in India, particularly focusing on the transition from single screen theaters to multiplexes, and how these changes affect social dynamics, gender roles, and architectural considerations.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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Of the motivations was really to capture the many changes

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that have happened in, film, exhibition,

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and movie going in India in the last 25 years,

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where we have seen, the arrival

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of India's first multiplex in 1997.

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And since then, it has become the dominant

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form of movie going

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and sort of public leisure in the Indian subcontinent.

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And this is a huge change because for almost eight decades

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before the arrival of the multiplex,

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we had only the single screen cinema

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and a very different culture of movie going.

00:39.755 --> 00:40.975
Um, so one of the things

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that my book studies is really this big shift

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and what this shift can tell us about

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how Multiplex has really transformed India's entertainment

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cultures in the last 25 years.

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A lot of this work is, ethnographic and archival.

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So, the study is located in New Delhi.

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There are a couple of reasons for that.

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Uh, the first is that, Delhi,

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because it's India's capital, is actually been

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the first laboratory for the country's experiments

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with any kind of new design

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and technology, even though Bombay is traditionally

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understood to be the film production center.

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Uh, but one thing that we did see was that India's first

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multiplex and the company that, owns

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and operates India's biggest multiplex chains are

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based out of Delhi.

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And Delhi was India's first multiplex market.

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So that's where the study began.

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And Delhi is also actually home to India's,

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several historic art Des

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and India's first modernist theaters.

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So it has a very robust theater history

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through which we can also map the country's architectural

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history and voice, both

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before, in, in British India, as well

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as in the post-colonial decades.

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So, the way I did research for this project was,

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I interviewed several departments of India's, first

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and largest multiplex chain, PVR cinemas.

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So I did an industrial ethnography, which basically means

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that I looked into their industrial literature,

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like brand books, HR manuals,

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and anything else that they were willing to share with me

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as an outsider going into the company.

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I also interviewed various people from architects

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to sound engineers, to HR heads

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to business development heads, to get a sense of

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how they were designing this entire

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multiplex project in India.

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I also spoke to several owners of India's of Delhi,

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for single screen cinemas, which,

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were basically family owned.

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So people, you know, sons in the same generation, you know,

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the father's sons grandfathers would

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Be be owning a cinema theater across generations.

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And they had, family archives that

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were never seen before.

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So just photographs, architectural plans, lots of anecdotes,

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booklets, publicity booklets and those kinds of things.

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So yeah, so it is shown between this corporate multiplex,

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industrial ethnography

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and the family archives of Delhi, single screen owners,

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as well as some work with, film practitioners in Bombay

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who, you know, had to shift gears in this multiplex moment

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as far as production and distribution

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of popula cinema was concerned.

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Those are my various sites of research for the book.

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Couple of things have happened

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with the single screen cinemas.

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Um, initially I would say in the first decade

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or so,

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the single screens held quite well against the multiplexes

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because the ticket price of the multiplex is 300 times.

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You know, what it used to cost to go.

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So going to a movie in India was one of the cheapest

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and easiest forms of entertainment.

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Um, and it was also very, very democratic

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because single screen cinemas with thousand seaters,

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which were located on the street in the middle of the,

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so people could, you know, really access it.

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Um, with the multiplex, of course there was,

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there were very many barriers in place, the economic

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and class ones being the main,

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but also politics of intimidation about who can enter,

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you know, a space like that.

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Uh, so I think the first 10 years they kind

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of held up pretty well,

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but as the economic might of the multiplex expanded along

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with the growth of the Indian middle class

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with a lot more disposable income, you know,

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people were really okay with buying a ticket that, you know,

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cost significantly more than the single screen.

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So the single screens got pushed out.

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A lot of them, were taken over by the multiplexes

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and converted, you know, into, refurbished into multiplexes.

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Um, and finally I think with COVID-19,

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things just the multiplexes,

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because they were so corporatized

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and had, you know, different kinds of banking arrangements

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and equity structures were able

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to su sustain the economic glow of COVID-19.

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But the single screens largely, shut shop.

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And then the third layer is the arrival of streaming video

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and all of us having access

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to everything on our mobile phones.

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So I think the twin onset of the multiplex cinema

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and streaming technologies have really spelled the death

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nail for India, single screens.

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Now, one thing to understand about the single screen cinema

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that architecturally it was a very interesting space.

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Um, so there were thousand seaters

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and, the front rows closest

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to the screen were the cheapest tickets.

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That's where, lower middle class sub

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And poor working class population sat, a lot

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of whom were men.

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And then there was the balcony on top,

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which was priced slightly higher, which was a place for

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families and women and, you know, middle classes

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to, watch the film.

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So as far as the segregation of place was concerned,

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it was already segregated a little bit by class,

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of course, but also by gender.

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Um, there were also four shows a day.

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So matney, noon, matney, evening and Night.

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And it was common depending on the single screen

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and the location and the film that was playing

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that the night show from nine

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to 12 at night would not have any women at all.

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So, and also there was something

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anxiety provoking for the Indian Middle class always,

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and especially, you know, the relationship between gender

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and space for women to go into this

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uncontrolled space of the single screen cinema

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where they would just be sharing space with men of

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any class past, religion, et cetera.

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So the single screen was an exciting, but unpredictable,

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and in the middle class imagination,

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sometimes a disreputable place.

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So however, a mall and a multiplex

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and multiplex is in India, usually located inside malls,

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you know, these are not places that can be imagined devoid

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of women at any time of the day or night.

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These are places that gain legibility

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and legitimacy with, with the presence of women.

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So, that is where, you know,

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the real shift happened from the imagination

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of the spectator as predominantly a sub man

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to a consuming middle class woman.

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And with this shift, what my book tries to show is

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that a number of industries had to then orient themselves

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to cater to this figure.

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So, one thing that I forgot to mention earlier

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with the research methods question is

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that I also interviewed mall designers and architects,

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because the multiplex lives in the mall

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and the mall multiplex now must be considered as this,

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joint space and ecology.

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So yeah, so those are some of the ways in which,

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you know, my book speaks to this,

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these changes in in gender space and, and class.

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And the other thing that I like you want to talk about is

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that this is a change.

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Yes, the multiplexes did come to India in the late 1990s,

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but this is a change between media

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and the middle class that has been happening since the 1980s

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with the arrival of privatized television.

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So television became a common object in India's middle class

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homes, from the late 1980s.

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And they really brought in, you know, gendered visions

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Of a new modernity, new infrastructures, the VCR.

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Uh, so there were these media

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and technological developments from the late 1980s

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that created these emotional convergences between,

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India's middle class and the consumer goods that they saw

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on, television

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and also, made them used to, private

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viewing in the comforts of their homes.

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So the more multiplex is in many ways an extension

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of some of the pleasures that we introduced

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by just having the television at home as a media object.

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What happened was that in the initial years, actually,

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the multiplex, really tried

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to placate anxieties around the depth of the cinema,

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single screen cinema, et cetera, by saying that, look,

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we are just, catering

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to a very niche section of society, right?

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So, the single screens are catering

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to a different market, and we are catering

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to a different market, and we are very small in India

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as a country of a billion people, you know, so there is no

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one entity that can come and capture the whole market.

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They really had to fight for certain real estate

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and infrastructural developments.

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But around the same time, at least in the Indian capital,

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you know, single screens started to,

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become sites of some really bad accidents.

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Ironically, actually, the, the year

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that the first Indian multiplex,

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was established in Delhi 1997, was also the, the year

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of this major fire catastrophe in one of Delhi's biggest

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single screen cinemas in a Porsche neighborhood,

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of Green Park, which had a lot of upper middle class people

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who lost family members and sons

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and daughters in this fire

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at the cinema in the middle of the day.

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Um, so one of the things that the multiplex cells,

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besides its built environments and,

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and, you know, spectacular architectonic is safety, which

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for the middle class in, in globalized Delhi

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or these globalized cities where the fear of accidents,

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terrorism, fire safeties, et cetera, you know,

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so the multiplex and the mall really position themselves

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as places that can guarantee you some kind

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of public safety against these threats

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that you might face in the city at large,

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which is this uncontrolled environment.

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I think that the book, I hope that the book is able

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to show the readers, that going to the cinema,

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which comes across as a simple act,

11:39.835 --> 11:41.055
is actually quite a dense

11:41.915 --> 11:46.365
and nuanced thing, which, you know, is,

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has, has a lot of meaning for several industries

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and economies that reside in the movie

11:52.865 --> 11:53.865
Theater, right?

11:54.245 --> 11:56.545
So what my book does is that it,

11:56.645 --> 11:59.905
it opens this interdisciplinary conversation between

12:00.595 --> 12:02.585
media studies and architecture,

12:03.035 --> 12:04.545
which are two separate fields,

12:04.635 --> 12:06.865
which have spoken a little bit to each other,

12:07.005 --> 12:08.945
but I think can talk a lot more.

12:09.565 --> 12:13.345
And one of things that the book does, is that it shows

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that architecture is a vital media industry now in,

12:17.345 --> 12:20.705
in this contemporary era of media consumption.

12:21.005 --> 12:23.345
The spectator cannot be targeted

12:24.085 --> 12:25.505
by the pleasures of just cinema.

12:25.895 --> 12:27.505
Many industries come together

12:28.045 --> 12:31.745
and blend together to become legible to the spectator.

12:32.645 --> 12:37.615
Um, and any kind, whenever we talk about space

12:37.615 --> 12:40.335
and architecture, we have to talk about national history

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and cultural politics.

12:41.995 --> 12:43.375
So while the multiplex

12:43.675 --> 12:45.415
and the Mall, these things might seem

12:46.295 --> 12:49.305
like global technologies that exist everywhere.

12:49.885 --> 12:51.385
You know, when you come into India

12:51.525 --> 12:53.705
and you come into the Indian capital like Delhi

12:53.805 --> 12:55.545
and you place the mall

12:55.545 --> 12:58.785
and multiplex in a longer arc of architectural history,

12:58.895 --> 13:03.665
spatial history, relationships between gender cast space,

13:03.795 --> 13:08.105
urban anxieties, a very different story emerges that,

13:08.605 --> 13:12.105
that we might not find in, in other parts of the world.

13:12.165 --> 13:14.505
So I think that is what I want the readers

13:14.505 --> 13:15.585
to take away from the book,

13:15.585 --> 13:17.305
and I think that is what this book is doing.

"Transformations in Indian Cinema: The Impact of Multiplexes on Moviegoing Culture"

00:00:00 - Of the motivations was really to capture the many changes that have happened in, film, exhibition, and movie going in India in the last 25 years, where we have seen, the arrival of India's first multiplex in 1997. And since then, it has become the dominant form of movie going and sort of public leisure in the Indian subcontinent. And this is a huge change because for almost eight decades before the arrival of the multiplex, we had only the single screen cinema and a very different culture of movie going. so one of the things
00:00:43 - and what this shift can tell us about how Multiplex has really transformed India's entertainment cultures in the last 25 years. A lot of this work is, ethnographic and archival. So, the study is located in New Delhi. There are a couple of reasons for that. the first is that, Delhi, because it's India's capital, is actually been the first laboratory for the country's experiments with any kind of new design and technology, even though Bombay is traditionally understood to be the film production center.
00:01:27 - multiplex and the company that, owns and operates India's biggest multiplex chains are based out of Delhi. And Delhi was India's first multiplex market. So that's where the study began. And Delhi is also actually home to India's, several historic art Des and India's first modernist theaters. So it has a very robust theater history through which we can also map the country's architectural history and voice, both before, in, in British India, as well as in the post-colonial decades. So, the way I did research for this project was,
00:02:11 - and largest multiplex chain, PVR cinemas. So I did an industrial ethnography, which basically means that I looked into their industrial literature, like brand books, HR manuals, and anything else that they were willing to share with me as an outsider going into the company. I also interviewed various people from architects to sound engineers, to HR heads to business development heads, to get a sense of how they were designing this entire multiplex project in India. I also spoke to several owners of India's of Delhi,
00:02:50 - were basically family owned. So people, you know, sons in the same generation, you know, the father's sons grandfathers would Be be owning a cinema theater across generations. And they had, family archives that were never seen before. So just photographs, architectural plans, lots of anecdotes, booklets, publicity booklets and those kinds of things. So yeah, so it is shown between this corporate multiplex, industrial ethnography and the family archives of Delhi, single screen owners, as well as some work with, film practitioners in Bombay
00:03:31 - as far as production and distribution of popula cinema was concerned. Those are my various sites of research for the book. Couple of things have happened with the single screen cinemas. initially I would say in the first decade or so, the single screens held quite well against the multiplexes because the ticket price of the multiplex is 300 times. You know, what it used to cost to go. So going to a movie in India was one of the cheapest and easiest forms of entertainment. and it was also very, very democratic because single screen cinemas with thousand seaters, which were located on the street in the middle of the,

"From Single Screens to Multiplexes: The Evolution of Cinema and Class Dynamics in India"

00:04:14 - with the multiplex, of course there was, there were very many barriers in place, the economic and class ones being the main, but also politics of intimidation about who can enter, you know, a space like that. so I think the first 10 years they kind of held up pretty well, but as the economic might of the multiplex expanded along with the growth of the Indian middle class with a lot more disposable income, you know, people were really okay with buying a ticket that, you know, cost significantly more than the single screen. So the single screens got pushed out.
00:04:56 - and converted, you know, into, refurbished into multiplexes. and finally I think with COVID-19, things just the multiplexes, because they were so corporatized and had, you know, different kinds of banking arrangements and equity structures were able to su sustain the economic glow of COVID-19. But the single screens largely, shut shop. And then the third layer is the arrival of streaming video and all of us having access to everything on our mobile phones. So I think the twin onset of the multiplex cinema
00:05:36 - nail for India, single screens. Now, one thing to understand about the single screen cinema that architecturally it was a very interesting space. so there were thousand seaters and, the front rows closest to the screen were the cheapest tickets. That's where, lower middle class sub And poor working class population sat, a lot of whom were men. And then there was the balcony on top, which was priced slightly higher, which was a place for families and women and, you know, middle classes to, watch the film. So as far as the segregation of place was concerned,
00:06:18 - of course, but also by gender. there were also four shows a day. So matney, noon, matney, evening and Night. And it was common depending on the single screen and the location and the film that was playing that the night show from nine to 12 at night would not have any women at all. So, and also there was something anxiety provoking for the Indian Middle class always, and especially, you know, the relationship between gender and space for women to go into this uncontrolled space of the single screen cinema
00:07:01 - any class past, religion, et cetera. So the single screen was an exciting, but unpredictable, and in the middle class imagination, sometimes a disreputable place. So however, a mall and a multiplex and multiplex is in India, usually located inside malls, you know, these are not places that can be imagined devoid of women at any time of the day or night. These are places that gain legibility and legitimacy with, with the presence of women. So, that is where, you know, the real shift happened from the imagination
00:07:45 - to a consuming middle class woman. And with this shift, what my book tries to show is that a number of industries had to then orient themselves to cater to this figure. So, one thing that I forgot to mention earlier with the research methods question is that I also interviewed mall designers and architects, because the multiplex lives in the mall and the mall multiplex now must be considered as this, joint space and ecology. So yeah, so those are some of the ways in which, you know, my book speaks to this,

"Transformations in Indian Cinema: The Impact of Multiplexes, Media, and Middle-Class Culture Since the 1980s"

00:08:26 - And the other thing that I like you want to talk about is that this is a change. Yes, the multiplexes did come to India in the late 1990s, but this is a change between media and the middle class that has been happening since the 1980s with the arrival of privatized television. So television became a common object in India's middle class homes, from the late 1980s. And they really brought in, you know, gendered visions Of a new modernity, new infrastructures, the VCR. so there were these media and technological developments from the late 1980s
00:09:09 - India's middle class and the consumer goods that they saw on, television and also, made them used to, private viewing in the comforts of their homes. So the more multiplex is in many ways an extension of some of the pleasures that we introduced by just having the television at home as a media object. What happened was that in the initial years, actually, the multiplex, really tried to placate anxieties around the depth of the cinema, single screen cinema, et cetera, by saying that, look,
00:09:52 - to a very niche section of society, right? So, the single screens are catering to a different market, and we are catering to a different market, and we are very small in India as a country of a billion people, you know, so there is no one entity that can come and capture the whole market. They really had to fight for certain real estate and infrastructural developments. But around the same time, at least in the Indian capital, you know, single screens started to, become sites of some really bad accidents. Ironically, actually, the, the year
00:10:32 - was established in Delhi 1997, was also the, the year of this major fire catastrophe in one of Delhi's biggest single screen cinemas in a Porsche neighborhood, of Green Park, which had a lot of upper middle class people who lost family members and sons and daughters in this fire at the cinema in the middle of the day. so one of the things that the multiplex cells, besides its built environments and, and, you know, spectacular architectonic is safety, which for the middle class in, in globalized Delhi or these globalized cities where the fear of accidents,
00:11:15 - so the multiplex and the mall really position themselves as places that can guarantee you some kind of public safety against these threats that you might face in the city at large, which is this uncontrolled environment. I think that the book, I hope that the book is able to show the readers, that going to the cinema, which comes across as a simple act, is actually quite a dense and nuanced thing, which, you know, is, has, has a lot of meaning for several industries and economies that reside in the movie
00:11:54 - So what my book does is that it, it opens this interdisciplinary conversation between media studies and architecture, which are two separate fields, which have spoken a little bit to each other, but I think can talk a lot more. And one of things that the book does, is that it shows that architecture is a vital media industry now in, in this contemporary era of media consumption. The spectator cannot be targeted by the pleasures of just cinema. Many industries come together and blend together to become legible to the spectator. and any kind, whenever we talk about space

"Intersecting Histories: Understanding the Multiplex and Mall within India's Unique Cultural and Spatial Dynamics"

00:13:15 - and cultural politics. So while the multiplex and the Mall, these things might seem like global technologies that exist everywhere. You know, when you come into India and you come into the Indian capital like Delhi and you place the mall and multiplex in a longer arc of architectural history, spatial history, relationships between gender cast space, urban anxieties, a very different story emerges that, that we might not find in, in other parts of the world. So I think that is what I want the readers to take away from the book, and I think that is what this book is doing.

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