National Cinema Day shifted from 16th to 23rd September: Here’s all you need to know
In the USA, National Cinema Day is celebrated on 3rd September. And guess what, the day had some pretty attractive perks, including a fixed movie ticket worth USD 3 instead of the usual rates hovering around USD 9. If you are a movie buff residing in India, there’s good news for you too! you too will get to watch movies at a discounted price of INR 75 across theatres in India on the National Cinema Day observed in India. But there’s a small change that you may not be aware of.
Turns out, instead of the usual 16th September, this year National Cinema Day will be commemorated on 23rd September. Why? In order to maximise participation among the cinegoers and include them as an active part of this year’s celebration. This decision has been taken by the Multiplex Association of India (MAI) after various stakeholders (such as filmmakers, film producers and artists) put a request for it. MAI has also reported that more than 4000 screens Pan-India have joined hands to make National Cinema Day 2022 a grand success. In fact, popular cinema chains such as PVR, INOX, Cinepolis, Carnival, MIRA, Citypride, ASIAN, Mukta A2, Movie Time, Wave, M2K and Delite are all part of this celebration.
Needless to say, this celebratory admission price has come as a pleasant surprise for all cinegoers who usually have to spend somewhere in between INR 200 and INR 400 for a single ticket at multiplexes.
Why is National Cinema Day 2022 being celebrated?
National Cinema Day will be observed this year to mark the successful opening of the movie theatres after a long COVID-induced hiatus. The day will also focus on acknowledging the moviegoers who made this happen and urge them to keep coming back to the theatres for a wholesome experience. National Cinema Day 2022 will also be a formal invitation for those who are yet to make it back to the theatres following the new normal. Fortunately, India has been a thriving film industry and has even witnessed one of the sharpest recoveries in the box office business worldwide.
Birth of Indian cinema
Most film connoisseurs in India will tell you that Indian film production commenced in 1913, which is why we celebrated the centenary of Indian cinema in 2013. However, this record isn’t entirely true. In fact, the origin of Indian cinema dates back to 7th July 1896 when movies first entered the then Bombay in the hands of Marius Sestier, who was sent by contemporary British filmmaker duo better known as the Lumiere Brothers. The goal was to screen their short films to British colonisers based in India, especially the ones who stayed as the Watson hotel. And these screenings were attended by distinguished local photographer Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar (popularly called Save Dada). He was so moved by that he wanted to make a feature film of his own and even commissioned a camera from the UK. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Save Dada went ahead a filmed his first movie in 1899, that turned out to be the first film made in India by an Indian-origin filmmaker. It was based on a live wrestling match in Mumbai’s Hanging Gardens that was beautifully captured by him. He had to ship the reel back to the UK for processing and by the time it came back, the Indian movie business had got its kickstart. Bhatavdekar purchased a projector, and screened not only his own movie The Wrestlers but also foreign films. Since then, Indian cinema has never really looked back. Fascinating, isn’t it?