Malashree – The biggest challenge in cinema today is getting audiences to theatres

Night Curfew is the first film that veteran actress Malashree took up after the tragic passing of her husband, film producer Koti Ramu, who succumbed to Covid-19 complications. The team of the film, including director Ravindra Venshi, was a young crew, with the experience of working with them being quite fascinating, she says.

Talking to Gaurish Akki Studios about the changes she perceives in cinema today, after over three decades as an actress, Malashree says that the technological advancements continue to amaze her, while new-age filmmakers also bring in a fresh perspective to storytelling. Compared to her early days, when she got to work with writers like Uday Shankar, among others, and people used to come to theatres to watch these films, today, because of the plethora of avenues, there’s so much content online that audiences don’t see the need to make that trip to movie halls.

Malashree was not keen to do Night Curfew at first because of its pandemic-related subject 

“Today, the biggest challenge is to bring people to theatres. Audiences are smart and look at the reviews, both from critics and regular cine-goers, and figure out the pros and cons of a film before deciding whether to watch it or not,” she says adding that higher cost of living has driven people to make informed choices while watching movies.

Ranjani Raghavan - Night Curfew excited me for its story and that I got to act with Malashree ma’am 

Earlier, she reckons, even daily-wage labourers had a passion for cinema and would go and watch movies in theatres because they had no other avenue for entertainment. Today, that is not the case and with a lot of free options available, a trip to the movies is no longer a necessity. “Back then, if not for theatres, there was no other means to watch a movie. Now, films are leaked online even before the theatrical release. The fact that audiences have access to so much content these days is the biggest problem and change that I see plagues the film industry,” says Malashree.

All is not lost, though, she says, stating that she firmly believes that there is still a section of audience that likes the theatrical experience. “It all depends on the subject,” she signs off.