The sleepy town of Purnia, Bihar is well known to movie buffs across the country, thanks to Vishek Chauhan. He is the owner of Roopbani Cinema located in Purnia and his hard-hitting and sensible quotes are often seen in film and trade articles in prominent news websites. Unlike other single-screen owners, Vishek tries his best to innovate in order to pull the audience to cinemas. In January this year, he implemented a fascinating idea – all those who enter the theatre without their mobile phones will get free popcorn! As expected, the idea caught attention across the board. Bollywood Hungama spoke exclusively to Vishek Chauhan to understand more about this unique offer.
EXCLUSIVE: Exhibitor Vishek Chauhan explains why he implemented ‘Leave your phone, get free popcorn’ offer; raises alarm over missing young superstars: “Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Ranbir Kapoor are BIGGEST crowd-pullers but they are above 40; where is the 20-something icon?”
At the onset, we asked about how the viewers had reacted to this offer. He said, “On the first day, we had 15-16 people (who claimed the offer). Since then, we have been getting 5-6 people on an average daily.”
How does one check whether or not a viewer has left his or her smartphone behind? Vishek replied, “Some people claim that woh phone gaadi mein rakh ke aaye hai ya hum ghar se leke hi nahin aaye hai. If there’s not much crowd and if they are known, then we can keep the phone safely with us while they watch the film. We hand over a receipt and also click a picture so that no one can claim later on that we broke their device. Once they return the receipt, they get the phone back.”
Vishek Chauhan revealed that such viewers are also eligible for free popcorn. “The idea is that you should not carry the phone inside the auditorium,” he said.
When asked how he derived this idea, Vishek Chauhan explained, “I have a chain of Nescafe coffee shops in Purnia. That’s where we came up with the idea of ‘talk over coffee, not over phone’. Soon, I realized that more than café, this needs to be implemented in cinemas. I have been a huge advocate of ‘anti-social media’ and anti-digital movements for a very long time. I gave my first speech on social media 4 years ago on Gandhi Jayanti at a local engineering college. I have read 10-12 books on social media. At present, I am reading the book ‘The Anxious Generation’ by Jonathan Haidt. It talks about today’s Generation Alpha; they are quite afraid and anxious as social media puts tremendous pressure on them to behave in a certain way. One mistake on social media and you are done.”
He continued, “Suppose you put a post of a child who wet his pants in school. Lakhs of children in India must have done that. It’s not a big deal. But if that video is uploaded on social media, he will be devastated. Children, from the age of 7 or 8 years of age are being forced to become their own brand manager though this is the age to commit mistakes.”
Vishek Chauhan further said, “Social media is teaching you how to talk and live your life. Then questionable social media influencers become lifestyle gurus of these kids. Agar aapke follower bahut hai, toh aap bhagwan hai social media pe. So, the idea of a role model has gone wrong. When we were growing up, our role models were Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan, etc. Basically, people who have done something. Now, some are seen as role models as they have 2 million followers though they are inherently d**kheads like Flying Beast, Vivek Bindra, Sandeep Maheshwari, etc. I was shocked to know that Sandeep Maheshwari is not even a graduate. Imagine, some youths have told me that ‘Hum Sandeep Maheshwari ko apna role model maante hain’.”
He then stated, “Hence, I believe that children should be kept away from social media. As far as our business is concerned, cinema is a great unifier. It brings together people from all walks of life. There’s a high chance that you might be sitting next to a very poor person and watching a film. There’s a high chance that you might be sitting next to a billionaire and watching a film. Hence, cinema brings people together while digital divides people. It confines them.”
Vishek Chauhan raised an important issue at this point saying, “The industry should discuss the fact that the current generation of 8- to 15-year-olds is not interested in the theatrical experience. We need to work our magic and focus on them as our theatrical audience is getting older. This can also be seen in the box office numbers. After 5 to 6 years, this generation (under 15-year-olds) will give us our bread and butter and make our shows full. But does the Hindi film industry has anything to entice them?”
He continued, “Currently, the biggest crowd-pullers for Bollywood are Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. In the younger generation, there’s Hrithik Roshan and Ranbir Kapoor. But the latter two are also in their 40s. Where is the 20-something icon? Are we going to create a star in his 20s? The answer is No as we are not focusing on star creation. That’s why the young bacchas are getting addicted to mobiles. They are even watching K-Dramas more than Hindi movies.”
He signed off by saying, “Hence, I appeal to the parents to keep the children away from the digital world. They should bring their kids to parks, gyms, swimming pools, drama classes, etc., that is, wherever they can meet more people.”
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