Tuesday, November 30, 2004
The Foi(b)l(e)s Of The Kannada Film Industry
You guys might have heard of this minor nuisance in Bangalore, called the Kannada film industry.
In a spirited bid to promote Kannada films, they've decided the best way to do so is to stop people from watching other language films ... including the two "national" languages - Hindi & English. The guy coming up with these decisions has to be the most mentally deficient gutterslob in the world! Here are some of the reasons a moratorium on films will never work in a place like Bangalore:
1. First and foremost, it's a simple case of supply & demand. In Bangalore (where the activism is taking place), let's face it: a lot of people (I don't have any exact statistics, but I can bet a major, or significant, percent of the population) are non-Kannada speaking ... or, are interested in watching both English & Kanadda films. I don't know what it's like in the sticks.
2. Denial of popular methods of entertainment always ... ALWAYS drives it underground, encourages piracy (or bootlegging), which is to the ultimate detriment to society in general. Look at US prohibition against alcohol in the 1930's - it gave rise to a whole load of trouble in the form of criminal gangs manufacturing and/or smuggling hooch ... and ultimately gave us some very fine films, but that's another topic altogether. A moratorium on movies will basically lead to people pirating films in other cities outside Karnataka, and bringing them into the state for sale.
3. The cash-rich urban youth of Bangalore can always hop onto a flight or a train, go across the border to Hosur (!) and watch the movie. Heck if I were a public official in Hosur, I'd be contacting theater owners and proposing the construction of a multiplex just inside the state border! More cash to TN!
4. Ultimately, you're going to scare away business to other states. Let's face it: Bangalore contributes a lot to the state's bottomline ... directly (income tax of corporations & their employees) and indirectly (support services, lifestyles, etc. to all those people). Bangalore has been the posterchild of India Shining. How do you think foreign & multinational Indian companies are going to react to governmental support of such policies?
So ultimately, people are going to be watching non-Kannada movies at home, or in other states. They may choose to watch the movie again after 7 weeks, but I would doubt it. And what about Kannada movies? Would people watch them, when they weren't watching them before? ... that was a rhetorical question, for those of you who missed it.
So my question is ... who's currently using the Kannada film industry's single brain cell at the moment? Surely there's some way to make him see the absolute foolishness of these hairbrained schemes?!
In a spirited bid to promote Kannada films, they've decided the best way to do so is to stop people from watching other language films ... including the two "national" languages - Hindi & English. The guy coming up with these decisions has to be the most mentally deficient gutterslob in the world! Here are some of the reasons a moratorium on films will never work in a place like Bangalore:
1. First and foremost, it's a simple case of supply & demand. In Bangalore (where the activism is taking place), let's face it: a lot of people (I don't have any exact statistics, but I can bet a major, or significant, percent of the population) are non-Kannada speaking ... or, are interested in watching both English & Kanadda films. I don't know what it's like in the sticks.
2. Denial of popular methods of entertainment always ... ALWAYS drives it underground, encourages piracy (or bootlegging), which is to the ultimate detriment to society in general. Look at US prohibition against alcohol in the 1930's - it gave rise to a whole load of trouble in the form of criminal gangs manufacturing and/or smuggling hooch ... and ultimately gave us some very fine films, but that's another topic altogether. A moratorium on movies will basically lead to people pirating films in other cities outside Karnataka, and bringing them into the state for sale.
3. The cash-rich urban youth of Bangalore can always hop onto a flight or a train, go across the border to Hosur (!) and watch the movie. Heck if I were a public official in Hosur, I'd be contacting theater owners and proposing the construction of a multiplex just inside the state border! More cash to TN!
4. Ultimately, you're going to scare away business to other states. Let's face it: Bangalore contributes a lot to the state's bottomline ... directly (income tax of corporations & their employees) and indirectly (support services, lifestyles, etc. to all those people). Bangalore has been the posterchild of India Shining. How do you think foreign & multinational Indian companies are going to react to governmental support of such policies?
So ultimately, people are going to be watching non-Kannada movies at home, or in other states. They may choose to watch the movie again after 7 weeks, but I would doubt it. And what about Kannada movies? Would people watch them, when they weren't watching them before? ... that was a rhetorical question, for those of you who missed it.
So my question is ... who's currently using the Kannada film industry's single brain cell at the moment? Surely there's some way to make him see the absolute foolishness of these hairbrained schemes?!
