Just as Sunny Deol croons Udja kale kawa on the silver screen at a Noida theatre, 34-year-old Shweta Mehra tears up. It’s the first time she’s seeing her favourite film Gadar: Ek Prem Katha in a theatre. The yoga instructor is one of the 40-odd cinephiles sitting in the cinema hall on a Friday morning to re-watch the 2001 film.
The remastering business has exploded. It helps theatres sustain during dry days; many of these films run with packed halls soldiering on word of mouth and nostalgia.
The memory of the ‘good old days’ dominates social media. Nostalgia has revived forgotten songs, stills and clips and turned them into viral sensations — dance challenges, old film scenes set to new music or vice versa, and the never-ending flow of memes. The internet never forgets and now the big screen is in the business of remembering.
The whistles and claps that erupt from the audience as Deol delivers his iconic dialogue — “Ek kagaz par mohor nahi lagegi toh kya Tara Pakistan nahi jayega? (Can a mere stamp on a paper stop Tara from going to Pakistan?)” — is proof that nostalgia is not just restricted to Instagram Reels. Multiplexes with 4k visuals and surround sound want a share of the audience that’s hungry to relive the past.
Over 2,000 km away, another re-release is showing distributors that this business model is not contingent on a lack of content.
Kamal Haasan’s Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu has been remastered for viewing on the big screen after 17 years.
Despite seven new releases in Chennai, the 2006 Tamil cop drama, directed by Gautham Menon, was running housefull in the theatres across the city.
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Golden strategy
With nostalgia as the fuel, re-releases have become an effective marketing strategy, by production companies and fan clubs, to build up anticipation for a superstar’s next release or their birthday or anniversary. Be it Sunny Deol, whose next film Gadar 2 will hit the theatres in August or Shah Rukh Khan, whose fans organised shows of his old films like Om Shanti Om before Pathaan’s release or late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s M.S. Dhoni — repackaging an old film using newer technology is the golden strategy to pump up die-hard fans and attract new ones.
“In the 1970s and 1980s, the re-releases were common and used to attract repeat crowds time and again. People who had seen Sholay would still come to the theatres to watch the classics. When there is a classic film like Gadar with upgraded technology, they have so much to offer. It is a great trend,” Taran Adarsh, trade analyst and film critic, told ThePrint.
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Star power rules
The remastering business has exploded across film industries, with Tollywood and Bollywood leading the bandwagon.
“There used to be a time when the re-release of films was a lucrative business. A film like Sholay was called a bank cheque. You could release it anytime and make profits. It is almost a dead business now because of OTT platforms and satellite channels,” said film trade analyst Komal Nahta.
He noted that Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, which is available to watch on Zee5, was an exception. “Everyone knows Gadar 2 is coming and it had a recall value. It did fair business,” he added.
There is also another catch to this game plan — it only works if the film is propped up by ‘star power’.
Unless you are Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kamal Haasan, Mohanlal, Mahesh Babu, or Sunny Deol, this strategy may not lure the crowds to the theatres.
Re-releases also fill in the gaps on particularly slow days. While the cost of remastering a film is about Rs 5-8 lakh, the returns are reportedly very high, with some re-released films collecting crores.
Just the previous year on Amitabh Bachchan’s 80th birthday, PVR Cinemas celebrated by organising the film festival ‘Bachchan Back to the Beginning’. During the four-day festival held in 17 cities, 11 films were screened across 22 theatres. Kaala Patthar, Kabhie Kabhie, Amar Akbar Anthony, Namak Halal, Abhimaan, Don, Satte Pe Satta, Chupke Chupke, and Deewar were part of the lineup.
It was running to packed houses, said Adarsh.
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Marriage of technology and nostalgia
Films are associated with memories, emotions, senses, and watching them again, especially in a theatre allows you to relive those moments.
Shweta has watched Gadar: Ek Prem Katha over 10 times now but theatre viewing has remained elusive. She was 12 when the film had originally been released, but she and her older sister were not allowed to go to theatres to watch films then. Now that her sister is no more, this re-release is special for more than one reason.
Re-releases also came in clutch when post-Covid when fears were running high about how to bring back the audiences to the theatres. The Telugu film industry resorted to its most-reliable films. They re-released Mahesh Babu’s Pokiri — a movie that was released 17 years ago — followed by Pawan Kalyan’s Jalsa (2008), Balakrishna’s Chennakesava Reddy (2002), and Prabhas’ Billa (2007).
Part of releasing an old film is also giving it technical upgrades, it has proven to be a successful phenomenon in the West with triumphant successes of The Godfather, Jaws, The Wizard of Oz, Avatar, and Titanic among others.
Back home, the trend that has been tested and tried for select films over the years — countless shows of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge or remastered versions of Sholay.
In 2004, Mughal-e-Azam was re-released in colour cinemascope and digital sound after 44 years. It was the collective effort of nearly 100 technicians who worked for a year. It was the first film anywhere in the world that was digitally coloured for a theatrical re-release.
But remastering a film is not just a commercial venture. Technical experts also suggest that timely technology upgrades will make movies “future-proof”. The process can help archive India’s rich film culture so more films don’t face the fate of Alam Ara (1931), India’s first talkie, and Kisan Kanya (1937), the first locally made colour film, whose prints have been lost to time.
This article is part of a series called Beyond the Reel. Read all the articles here.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)