Length of a film matters a lot: G Dhananjayan

Is the length of a film an important factor in deciding its fate at the box-office? Says Amrita, a college student and a movie buff, “We just do not have time for anything as life is fast-paced
Let me tell you, nobody can sit through a film if it is over two hours and 20 minutes, however good it is.” Says producer G Dhananjayan, “In today’s world, length of a film matters a lot when it comes to retaining the audience’s interest. Audiences, who are used to watching big budget Hollywood films that run for a maximum of 100 to 115 minutes, are not prepared to watch any Indian film for more than 130 – 140 minutes, giving a concession for the songs in our films.” According to Sekhar, trade analyst and mediator, “Pokkisham and Kanthaswamy, which recently hit the screens, have a screening time of 170 and 192 minutes respectively. Before release, the directors refused to trim them. But within 48 hours of their release, they reduced it by 20 to 25 minutes. However, by then, the word of mouth had already spread that the films were too long to sit through.” Kollywood directors like Cheran and Susi Ganeshan are very rigid when it comes to the length of their films and refuse to cut them before release. They are from the old school of the 1970s and 80s, where length of a film did not matter, as there was no other form of entertainment. Remember Cheran’s Thavamai Thavamirunthu was three hours and 20 minutes, before theatre operators in Tamil Nadu cut it down to two hours and 50 minutes! His Pokkisham producer Hitesh Jabak wanted him to reduce the length before release, but Cheran refused and finally agreed only after the film’s release! In an interview to a website, Cheran said, “How can some critics say that today’s generation won’t like the pace of my film? They don’t have the right to say so. It is the prerogative of the film-maker to make a film the way he wants to. Cinema is a creative medium and not a commercial proposition.” Says Roy Augustine who runs a chain of theatres, “Some directors think before release that they have made a classic, without caring for the audiences and subsequently, they realise it’s too long after release. They then cut 20 to 25 minutes. But by then, it is too late. What cannot be said in 120/130 minutes cannot be said in 180 minutes and films, being a visual medium, one should be able to tell the story in a shorter duration.” A manager of a leading multiplex found that for a recent film which was too long, he had to start the noon show at 10.30 am. The Chennai audiences are used to noon shows beginning at 12 pm. In the multiplex, the night show of the same film ended around 3 am, and ushers had to wake up audiences who had snoozed off! Says Jayavel Murugan, a leading Tamil film distributor in the US, “Our prime time show in the US is the 11pm show. For some of the recent Tamil films, we had to cancel the shows from day three as nobody turned up and the American operators of cinema theatres hate to screen Tamil films because they are too long!”
By: - Sreedhar Pillai27 August 2009, 12:05am IST