Film exhibitor responds to Naseeruddin Shah’s ‘darinde’ statement: ‘Distasteful, factually incorrect statement’

Exhibitor and film trade analyst Akshaye Rathi has responded to Naseeruddin Shah’s latest controversial comment on exhibitors and distributors, in which the veteran actor alleged that the distributors and exhibitors “eat away” the major portion of money that a successful film makes at the box office, leaving very little for those who work really hard for making the film. (Also read: Naseeruddin Shah on box office: ‘A large share is taken away by distributors’)

Naseer’s statement

Naseeruddin was the chief guest at the event organised by Film Heritage Foundation Wednesday evening. He was speaking about the struggles and hardships that technicians and projectionists face in the industry when he blamed exhibitors and distributors for taking away maximum portions of the box office earnings of successful films. The actor also called them ‘darinde (devils)’.

Exhibitor says Naseeruddin is ‘unaware’

Akshaye Rathi took to Twitter to write a long note and register his objections to Naseer’s statements. He first tweeted his thanks to Naseeruddin Shah for attending the recent Film Heritage Foundation’s award function, and added, “While I’m truly grateful to you for gracing the @FHF_Official ’s function where three projectionists (one of them being from our chain of cinemas) were felicitated for decades of their service, it’s with deep regret & disappointment, that I’m having to write this tweet.”

He then shared the exact quote of Naseeruddin from the event and expressed his objections: “As a film exhibitor, I object strongly to this distasteful & factually incorrect statement. As they say, ignorance is dangerous, but half-knowledge is even more dangerous. Your statement, unfortunately, indicates that despite having years of experience as an artiste, you are unaware of the ground realities of the entertainment sector.”

Films’ success ratio is lower than 10%

“I hope you realise that the strike rate/success ratio of the films that your ilk (content creators ranging from actors to filmmakers) makes is sub 10% & an overwhelming majority of the ones that release in cinemas don’t even draw enough footfalls to help us break even on our weekly operational expenses (real estate, electricity, salaries, maintenance, taxes etc),” Akshaye wrote, adding that when an occasional blockbuster does come their way, the profits go into making up for the losses incurred through weeks of “flop/underperforming films”.

Akshaye mentioned the expenses of the film exhibition business and cited the example of one of his projectionists who has been working with him for 53 years and received an award from Naseeruddin during the award function. “Irrespective of the fate of films (disappointing more often than not) that play at cinemas through a month, the salaries of cinema managers, projectionists, ushers, canteen staff, housekeeping teams, box office teams, distribution agents etc are paid in full & I’m pretty sure no Darinda would have the stomach to cushion his people from the financial blows being dealt to him. My family has done that for over 7 decades. Perhaps that is why Shri Lakhanlal Yadav, whom you felicitated at the function, has been with us for 53 years & continues to be a part of our family at work even today, like many others.”

Akshaye added, “Thankfully, there are enough foot soldiers who witness, understand, appreciate & share the passion & love for cinema that keeps us exhibitors in the business. If making money was our only objective, I promise, we would have been better off selling our properties & keeping the spoils in a bank fixed deposit, let alone more lucrative investment options. I sincerely hope you’ll realise someday, that more than anything else, we exhibitors & our people work to give the audiences a few hours of joy & escapism from the harsh realities of their lives. The least we deserve for doing so, is a pat on the back instead of brickbats, from the very people whose work we try and take to the widest possible audience despite tough & trying circumstances.”

Akshaye signed off the long note with “Sincere regards, (Not) a darinda…Just an exhibitor.”