Thursday, October 18, 2012

Dredd's own production company Reliance Entertainment and their Big Cinemas in Mangalore didn't care for the film

I've been putting off to write this rant since the day Dredd got released worldwide including in India on September 21, 2012. I had planned to write a letter to Big Cinemas, but then realized it would be a futile effort.

One of the production companies of Dredd is the Indian company Reliance Entertainment, their logo is also visible on the movie poster. The multiplex Big Cinemas is part of  the Reliance group of companies. Yet on opening week the movie Dredd was playing with only one show in Mangalore Big Cinemas, that too on Screen 4, which is the mini theater sized screen. In the past Hollywood movies were being screened on Screen 4 in Mangalore after one or two weeks of playing on the Screen 1 or 2. Now Mangalore Big Cinemas is screening new movies straight away to Screen 4.

(Click to enlarge)
It's more unbelievable considering that the movie is Reliance's own production, yet their Big Cinemas treated the movie like crap. It's like they wanted the movie to fail and remain undiscovered. It lasted only for one week with its last day on Sept 27 and since it played only in that screen 4, I refused to watch it. Besides Mangalore, the movie didn't play beyond one week in any Big Cinemas in other cities across India. Couldn't they at least keep one show a day on one screen for their own parent company's produced Hollywood film?

I despise the fact that Reliance Entertainment also has a stake in Dreamworks as they invested several millions with the studio few years back. It would have been better if a more reputed company perhaps like Tata had invested in Dreamworks instead. The brand name Reliance especially after their venture into the telecommunication division is synonymous with words likes "cheap product" and "poor customer service". Of course I thought Reliance Entertainment might stand apart from their other divisions, but looks like maintaining brand image and quality service to their consumers is not part of their company motto and their lack of diligence is uniform on all their platforms.

Can't wait to see how Reliance Entertainment handles the release of Lincoln in India, which is another Dreamworks production with Reliance.

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