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Cannes 2025: 'All We Imagine As Light' actress Chhaya Kadam returns to the festival, says 'Can never forget the day when...'
She added, 'Every time I see that photo, I feel I fuelled the courage of a lot of women in the country, especially who want to become actors.' read more
'All We Imagine As Light' actress Chhaya Kadam has come back to the Cannes Film Festival for the second time. She made a lot of headlines and heads turn last year with her appearance. She spoke about her second appearance which happens to be for a yet-to-release Marathi film.
Talking about her most memorable moment at the festival in an interaction with Sucharita Tyagi, Kadam said, 'Jab us din best film announcement hui, to mujhe laga ki Payal uthke akeli jaayegi. Yaani aisa hota hai na? But wo uthi and hum teeno ko saath mein leke gayi."
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She added, 'Every time I see that photo, I feel I fuelled the courage of a lot of women in the country, especially who want to become actors.'
Also, in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, said Chhaya , 'It didn't matter whether they knew how to act or not. Just their screen presence was important. Then those films needed a villain too and all movies then needed some fighting. Then the hero will give one fight and all villains will fall here and there. But now we should understand that audiences have changed. They have way more exposure than the audiences of yester-years. They want to see themselves in the characters that are shown on screen.'
Chhaya believes that it's a great time for the craftsmen of today. Because once the scene was such that to be in the film industry you had to be beautiful, that was in fact the first requirement. And most importantly, an actress had to be fair. 'Now the first requirement is talent. And I would say OTT had a huge role to play in this change. The audiences understand the differences between fake and real.'
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It has also been selling movie tickets for ₹99 each on Tuesdays as part of a weekly offer. To an extent, PVR Inox's troubles stem from the business model it has built for itself. Positioned as a premium experience, it occupies some of India's priciest locations, including large malls in the top three-four metros of the country. This means it struggles to keep up with rent, utilities and common area maintenance costs. In contrast, its small-town focused regional rivals have found ways to bring down their upfront costs and diversify income streams. First, most of these operators are expanding via franchisee, offering to (sometimes) operate the location and agreeing to a revenue share. This allows companies such as The Connplex to cut the capex required on their part at a new location significantly. 'The landing cost of one of our cinemas is ₹1.5-2 crore, compared to the average of ₹8-10 crore for a national multiplex chain," The Connplex's Dhyani said. 'So, we get a return on our (upfront) investment in 18-24 months." In real estate, landing cost implies the total investment made upfront in setting up a shop, cinema or mall. Industry executives that Mint spoke to said a larger, premium cinema located in a top-of-the-line mall in a large metro can take up to five years to break even. What helps, said Dhyani, is making the cinemas smaller and ready for uses other than screening movies. 'We open 7,000-10,000 sq. ft cinemas with 75-100 seats. These auditoriums can be booked for live sports screenings, comedy shows, even corporate events," he added. In contrast, auditoriums in a PVR Inox often accommodate up to 250-300 seats, even more in some locations. While the company has been hosting live screenings of cricket matches and allows private screenings of films, it is not generally open to other forms of entertainment. Newer rivals are trying to ditch the traditional multiplex model for an all-encompassing entertainment centre with multipurpose theatres. Chowk, for example, is a to-be launched chain of entertainment centres in North India that combines theatres with sports facilities and banquet halls, eschewing non-revenue generating areas like a cinema lobby. 'This increases the revenue generating area of the entire project," founder Nilesh Kumar said. 'We will use prefabricated structures, and the estimated landing cost will be ₹20 crore, much lower than that of a mall." The need to cut fixed costs is not lost on PVR Inox. The management told investors in the earnings call cited earlier that it was aggressively controlling them and planned to open new screens in a 'capex-light model". Small-town limits However, industry executives say there is a limit to the small-town business opportunity. 'In smaller cities, there is lower disposable income and fewer places to go to with family and friends in a hygienic and secure environment," NY Cinemas' Sharma said. But fewer people in these towns will have three-four hours to kill and spontaneously decide to spend it catching a movie. These outings are usually planned with the family. Sharma added that the best way for an affordable cinema in a small town to make money is to ensure people in the area make it a habit to walk in and watch movies. 'We have also gone to towns with just a population of 200,000 and we have run such locations profitably," he said. 'In our kind of business, we run a show even if one-two people come in to watch because people should get used to coming to the cinema anytime." Yet, India's film industry, especially in the Hindi language, is in dire need of more screens in as many cities and towns as possible. As films lose their audience to online entertainment, a clear divide has cropped up. On one end are 'big budget' films, usually a mix of action, fantasy and mythology, and fronted by a big star designed for the big screen. On the other end are 'OTT films', often comedies or dramas, with no big star, which are deemed too small in stature to draw audiences out of their homes. But, as streaming platforms cut their content costs and consolidate among themselves, they are buying fewer such films. Consequently, fewer films are getting made, and those that release in theatres have massive pressure to perform at the box office. Smaller, affordable and widely available theatres can help set this right. 'We have very few theatres for the size of our country," Bollywood actor Aamir Khan said at the government's WAVES Summit in May, echoing Shah Rukh Khan. 'Our biggest hits, over the years, have had a footfall of 30-35 million people. In a country which is recognised as a film-loving country, only 2% of the population watches our biggest hits in theatres. 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