A few days ago, actress Sruthi Hariharan went on a rant on social media where she showcased how Kannada films don’t have enough screens/shows as compared to those of other languages.
Her post created a stir and got people talking about the issue. We caught up with the actress, who shared her views on the same. “Bengaluru is a diverse city where Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil and other language films release and we’re happy about it. But Kannada films don’t have enough theatres/screens,” she states.
Sruthi, whose film Beautiful Manasugalu released on January 20, adds, “The number of shows Hindi movies have is 150 times more than what Kannada films get in the opening week. Considering we had two big Hindi films — Kaabil and Raees release five days later, we had absolutely no space. A Telugu film which releasing three weeks ago is still running in theatres to empty houses! It has three times more shows than our movie.”
The artiste reveals that even rural audiences and those in smaller districts didn’t get to watch her film as they were lesser or no shows available. “Also, there are no shows at convenient timings. How will people who work watch a show on a weekday if there’s no show at night?” she questions.
When film-goers question her about the quality of our cinema, Sruthi reminds one that there is a change happening. “We have a fun film like Kirik Party, which is doing well, and we are all happy about it. As for our movie, we managed to get a good number of theatres for our opening, but not without a fight. Our team was outside Gandhinagar day in and day out,” she says, adding, “It’s not only about our film — it’s about every single director who has tried to make a good Kannada film and is struggling to keep the film running. There are several small budget flicks that are not part of the commercial bandwagon. We work hard to show the film to an audience. I have personally seen the makers of Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu struggle for screens.”
Calling for equality in the number of shows for Kannada films as compared to other language movies, the actress strongly feels that there is a problem with the way the entire system functions.
“What is happening is a money-making process. We need Government intervention. We are doing everything in our means to gain their attention. Hope they wake up and do something soon,” she hopes. She also asks the audience to support Kannada films and says, “Raise your voice as people of Karnataka to fight and save what is ours.”
