No chance to view Oscar winners at city theatres

GUWAHATI: If you are a film buff who set the alarm to 6am Monday morning to watch the Oscars and have made a list of must-watch Academy Award winners like 'Argo', 'Lincoln', 'Life of Pi', 'Django Unchained' and others on the big screen, you would do best to download the movies online or buy a print. Except for 'Life of Pi', none of the Oscar nominations or winners were released in the city and it's unlikely that the ones that still haven't been released in India will come to the city.
"I was in Delhi few days ago, and the multiplexes there were screening most of the Academy nominated flicks. It is only in Guwahati that such critically-acclaimed films are not played in theatres," said Swakhyar Deka, president of the recently-formed Guwahati Books and Movies Club.
The blame can be put on the lack of infrastructure with most movie halls in the city having single screens and halls have to be in compliance with a minimum standard in the case of new releases, especially Hollywood flicks. Hollywood studios only release films in theatres that adhere to this basic minimum standard, movie buffs in the city have been left high and dry.
Besides, zany multiplexes in the city prefer to screen only blockbuster English movies featuring the likes of Tom Cruise of Brad Pitt and packed with action and special effects as they are more viable commercially than the "different" kind of films that usually go to the Oscars. There are not many takers for a 'Linclon' or an 'Argo', say theatre owners and managers. Even neighbouring Shillong has an edge over Guwahati in this aspect. "I can understand that film buffs must feel disappointed such films are not screened. The single theatres do not have 2K projectors and without projectors the films cannot be projected. The Hollywood studios do not release the films without the Digital Cinema Initiatives compliance as per which where there is the lacking of the minimum standard, they state that they will not release the films. Commercial viability is another aspect," said Chinmoy Sarmah, proprietor Anuradha Cinema.