Other States - Orissa

Oriya films continue to pull crowds to theatres

BERHAMPUR: Oriya films still continue to draw large crowds to ticket counters of film halls. Oriya films guarantee full houses at theatres for at least three weeks despite the invasion of pirated VCDs and DVDs, say the workers of film halls in the city.

Earlier Oriya films used to be released coinciding with the festive seasons. But now producers and distributors of Oriya films are daring to release their movies even during March, which happens to be the examination season. Oriya film ‘Mote Ta Love Hela Re’ has been released this week. And it is running packed houses and people could be seen vying with one another to get tickets at a theatre in the city where it was released.

A large chunk of the audience of Oriya films is women. Even film halls prefer to have reruns of Oriya films at their theatres before releasing a new Oriya film.

Some Oriya films draw more crowd for continuous weeks than several Hindi blockbusters. For rural audience and traditional Oriya women Oriya movies are better attraction than Hindi or English movies. Groups from villages hire vehicles to have a trip to Berhampur to watch Oriya movies.

According to an ardent cinema fan Saroj Mohapatra, Oriya films strive on rural public and lower middle class audience.

The Oriya films that are remakes of Hindi or Telugu movies draw crowd for their masala histrionics rather than good Oriya films that receive critical acclaim, said Mr Mohapatra. Recently critically acclaimed Oriya movie ‘Kathantara’ was released in the city but it could run for only a week.

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