Filmmaker blames outside lobby for controlling Assam halls

Guwahati, April 27 (PTI): Makers of Assamese feature film “Local Kung Fu 2”, based on William Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors”, today alleged that their movie has been withdrawn from local cinema halls to accommodate “Baahubali 2”.
At a press conference, the director and the producer of the film claimed that “non-Assamese people sitting in Bengaluru and Delhi” were controlling the cinema halls.
“With the limited number of shows, we were doing good business. We are now saddened to learn that our film will be taken down this Friday. Is this the way these cinema hall owners treat local cinema? I am shocked to say the least,” said director Kenny Deori Basumatary.
He claimed that “Local Kung Fu 2” opened to a great response across the state on April 19, with shows being pre- booked online to nearly houseful capacity at different theatres such as PVR Guwahati, Inox Jorhat, Anuradha Guwahati.
“If no one was watching our film, it’s quite obvious that theatre owners would remove it. But it’s doing really well, getting housefuls and tremendous response. So, why should an Assamese film be removed from Assam theatres by non-Assamese people sitting in Bengaluru and Delhi?” questioned Basumatary, who acted in Bollywood films like “Mary Kom” and “Shanghai”.The film’s executive producer Durlov Baruah said an Assamese film gets around 40 halls, out of which around 20 are not in good condition.
“So, we have just 20 halls to break even. Even if all shows are houseful, 20 halls cannot give us the profit in a week because unlike Bollywood films, we do not have have the opportunity to screen our movies outside Assam,” he added.
When contacted, the movie’s distributor Mitali Films Proprietor Ranjit Paul said “Local Kung Fu 2” had booked the halls only for nine days from April 19 to April 27.
“We had requested them not to release the film before ‘Baahubali 2’ as they would not get any hall from April 28.
But they decided to go ahead with their plans and accepted to run ‘Local Kung Fu 2’ for just nine days,” he added.