Swarup Chakraborty
I am not a superhero fan, however, I could not resist the temptation of the visual extravaganza that the latest Avengers film – Avengers: Infinity War – offers. The pull was so alluring that I found myself at a multiplex in central Mumbai on the second day of its release. The theatre was choc-a-block with kids, teenagers, young adults and the parents of the kids. Needless to say, the film is a delight to watch in 3D. Though I still reminisce and rejoice my first ‘real’ 3D film experience of Avatar almost a decade back and feel that no other movie has been able to match its production standards till date; Avengers: Infinity War certainly managed to take me on a joy ride.
While Hollywood makes merry with such visual extravaganzas, it is surely a lost opportunity for the Indian film industry. Films like Avengers, surely re-ignite the desire of movie lovers, who may not have visited the theatres for some time because of the invasion by the the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime. Opulent mise-en-scene certainly entices audiences to buy tickets and watch such marvels on the big screen – the best place to have such experience.
This is the kind of pull that Bahubali enjoyed, purely on the merits of the content and the breath-taking visuals. However, while India produces a movie like Bahubali once in a blue moon, Hollywood studios keep dishing out movies with great animation, computer graphics and well-etched characters almost every fortnight.The big studios of Hollywood are having a field day in India, while our film industry is seemingly content with leveraging the fandom of the superstars.
Bloomberg has reported that Avengers: Infinity War has earned US$ 14 million in Indian theatrical gross collections during the weekend of its release. That is almost Rs. 100 crore. I do hope that Indian movie moguls are taking note of the same. The fact that really irked me was that 28th April to May 1st was a really long weekend and in spite of that there were no decent Hindi, Bengali, Telugu or Tamil film releases. While Indian film makers and distributors fight over dates like Republic Day, Independence Day, Eid, Diwali and Christmas holidays to release their films, the inability to plan and release a big film during such a long weekend clearly shows their lack of foresight and business acumen. Some trade analysts say that IPL scares Indian producers in planning their film’s release when the tournament is on, however, the logic doesn’t seem to hold ground when Hollywood movies continue to have a field day at the Indian Box Office.
About the movie Avengers: Infinity War – It is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the nineteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It is the sequel to 2012’s The Avengers and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, while also picking up plot points from many other MCU movies, most notably Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, Doctor Strange, and the two Guardians of the Galaxy films.
The movie had a world-wide release last Friday. Catch the film trailer here: