Rana Daggubati says India’s low screen count is triggered by rising real estate cost

Actor Rana Daggubati, who is known for ‘Arrambam’, ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’, ‘Baby’, ‘Housefull 4’ and others, has shared his insights on the Indian entertainment industry’s eternal problem of a diminishing screen count.Rana spoke with IANS ahead of the release of ‘All We Imagine as Light’ which won the Grand Prix at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

Rana, who is presenting the film to the audience across the country, told IANS, “India is definitely very very underscreened. In terms of the number of screens it has, 14, 000 is a very large number. India has only about 6000-8000 working screens, the rest are all diminishing in many ways. Out of which, a large part of it is in Andhra and Telangana, the areas that I live in.

He further mentioned, “But no, we just feel like it can be much more. Screens for different kinds of people, and the number of people that are around”.

He then pointed toward the axel that drives the problem of screen count: India’s real estate market.

The actor told IANS, “It would solve that problem but India’s real estate is not as cheap as the rest of the world. We have less land, and many people unlike the USA or China which have much more land mass than us. We can build many more things. So that would change. But it’s like a chicken and egg. Look at the cinemas now. Every festival we are over full”.

“And we feel like there is no space for new films. But the rest of the year as exhibitors. We just sit idle because there is no film. It’s that trick that we are falling in, I just feel like. Unless exhibitors also know that there is more cinema that they can play, different types of audience that they can reach out to, different types of marketing techniques, that they can start exploring”, he added.

‘All We Imagine as Light’ is set to arrive in cinemas in India on November 22.

Mrunal shares throwback pictures from ‘Love Sonia’ to wish Demi Moore

To wish Demi Moore on her 62nd birthday, actress Mrunal Thakur shared a throwback picture from their 2018 film “Love Sonia.”Mrunal took to her Instagram stories where she shared a collage from the shoot of their film. It had the Indian actress reading a script while Moore could be seen listening intently to the director.

For the caption, she wrote: “Just found these precious photos Also belated birthday beautiful @demimoore.”

“Love Sonia” is directed by Tabrez Noorani and produced by David Womark. The film features newcomer Mrunal Thakur as the title character along with Riya Sisodiya, Freida Pinto, Demi Moore, Manoj Bajpayee, Richa Chadda, Anupam Kher, Adil Hussain, Rajkummar Rao, and Sai Tamhankar.

The drama film traces the story of Sonia’s debt-ridden father who sells her sister; she sets out on a journey hoping to rescue her. Sonia’s life takes an unusual turn when she gets trapped in the world of flesh trade.

On November 2, Mrunal schooled a fan for using her pictures without her consent, she later apologised, and also urged her followers to not to troll the guy.

The actress recently took to the Stories section of her Instagram, and shared a video of herself talking to her followers as she came across a fan who has edited his own picture with many actresses.

First, Mrunal felt really happy that she could be reason for someone’s happiness. However, when she explored the fan’s social media, she realised that he had similarly edited his pictures with other actresses as well.

She said in the video, “Yaar guys, aap log bachhe ki jaan loge kya? Maine wo comment kar diya kuch. Aur pehle jab maine dekha main khush hui. I was like chal kisi aur ke saath na sahi. In ke saath hi sahi, main Diwali toh mana rahi hoon. Phir I opened his page and then I saw he’s edited his videos with each and every actress”.

She further mentioned, “ My heart was broken. I was so sad. But I really love his editing skills and I really pray and I hope that he uses his art for the right things. But please don’t say bad things to him. His intention was maybe not bad. And I just hope ki wo aur logon ka dil na todein”.