Rural India still watches movie outdoors

10 years after his second directorial venture Split Wide Open, internationally acclaimed filmmaker Dev Benegal is ready with his next film Road, Movie. The film starring Abhay Deol, Tanishtha Chatterjee and Satish Kaushik in lead roles talks about the concept of showing movies on the go, a tradition still very prevalent in the interiors and heartlands of India. Says Dev, "Shocking as it may sound, 70% of the Indian population still watches movie outdoors.

The first time I went to a small village on the outskirts of Maharashtra, nearly 3000 people had gathered to watch a film. The next time somewhere in Rajasthan nearly 4.5 lakh people had come together to watch a film. These are places where there is none of the basic amenities of life like water, electricity and yet the enthusiasm of these folks to watch a film is something out of this world. It's like a carnival atmosphere.

This is an extraordinary Indian phenomenon and when I saw the diaspora of people who had gathered together to watch the film, I was taken aback. There were small children, young couples, families and the elderly crowd all of them geared for their dose of entertainment at a meager price of just Rs.10 per ticket. I thought of it as a kind of social networking ala Facebook in flesh and blood and it increased my belief in the making of Road, Movie."