Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma feels the current crisis of patronage in cinemhalls is an attention-problem.
“On the one hand there are too many choices on OTT. Families have installed home theaters, and they are still unable to watch feature films. I know of families that are just happy watching a cluster of trailers at one go . They are unable to decide which of those films from the trailers they really want to see,” says Ramu,
According to the the director of such milestone movies as Satya, Company and Raat the real threat to cinemas is not the OTT. “It is YouTube. That’s where our audiences are going for their entertainment these days. They have no patience with two hours and more for feature films. They would rather watch 2-5 minutes of funny video-reviews of films rather than the films themselves.”
Ramu feels the YouTube culture is here to stay. “You can’t persuade the audience back into theatres now, unless the content is something completely unusual. Look at the Telugu film Karthikeya 2.It doesn’t even have any face value. The hero is almost unknown. People are still crowding to theatres to see it. The actual threat is dull content. An average Indian family won’t invest time money and attention in a full –length feature unless it’s something they have never seen before.”