The Hindu : New Delhi News : New move to draw crowds to Siri Fort Auditorium

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 09, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

New move to draw crowds to Siri Fort Auditorium

By Lakshmi B.Ghosh

NEW DELHI, MARCH 8. In an ambitious move to restore Siri Fort Auditorium's status of a cultural hub and get the "masses'' back to the theatre, the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry is finally all set to convert the Capital's original "multiplex'' into a middle class entertainment destination.

Close on the heels of his decision to make screening of retrospective film packages mandatory twice a month, the Union I&B Secretary, Naveen Chawla, has now shot off a directive for slashing the entrance rates of three Siri Fort auditoria as they were found to be grossly under utilised.

But that's not all. The Ministry is also looking at appointing a curator who can manage bigger and better festivals to make the complex a complete entertainment package for the common man. As part of its attempt to bring in "corporate'' culture into the working of the complex, the Ministry is hoping that this would mean more activities and events through the year.

"We realised that our halls had very low occupancy, with some of them being as low as 18 per cent. The highest is perhaps Siri-I that has a 30 per cent occupancy. When we looked into the reasons, it was found that our rates were double that of halls the same size, which made it too expensive for most people. The idea is to make the place more affordable,'' says Mr.Chawla.

Although the main and largest auditorium in the complex Siri -I will continue with the old rates, auditorium No. 2, 3 and 4 will soon shift to the new rates that are expected to be reasonable enough for small screenings and events. Interestingly enough, a recent proposal for a fifth auditorium was turned down by the Secretary after the low occupancy figures came to light.

"The idea is to ensure that a common man can come to Siri Fort and enjoy a day without worrying about the money. A middle class person cannot afford to buy expensive tickets or get passes to see a movie. We want to convert Siri Fort into a place open for everyone,'' added Mr.Chawla.

With the focus being on better utilisation of the Siri Fort Complex, the Ministry feels the challenge is in getting the people back in circulation first. And the retrospective package is just one of the steps in that direction. Although started some time back on an experimental basis, the Secretary said with the classics receiving a good feedback, the decision to make it mandatory was essential.

"The demand for the classics surprised us, and since the National Archives do have a great collection, we thought it would be a good idea to get the films to be seen by the public through two retrospective packages every month,'' Mr.Chawla said.

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