Where have all the English theatres gone?

I moved back to Bombay in May last year after a 13-year stint abroad. Having been born and raised in Bombay, I came back to a city I am very familiar with. Globalisation, a booming stock market, BPO empires may all be new, but the old adage springs to mind – the more things change, the more they stay the same.

One of the most annoying, even insidious, changes I’ve noticed is the phenomenon of the “turncoat movie theater”. You know the ones I am talking about… the Regals and Eroses of our city. Theatres that once only screened English movies.

I suppose times change and business is business, but it saddens me that these theatres are now reduced to (almost) exclusively screening the copious drivel that Bollywood churns out.

At one time on any given weekend one could find at least 10 English films playing around the city. Now I’m hard pressed to find even 5. I peg the blame for this squarely on “turncoats”. Back in the day they could be counted on to be screening an English movie. Now, however, it’s a casino crap shoot… you may get lucky and find that Regal is playing an English film, or, as is more often the case… the Bollywood house wins the hand!