YORKTON - For something a little different, for Yorkton at least, you might want to check out the Tower Theatre Monday for a taste of film from India.
The movie, named KGF, short for Kolar Gold Fields, will be playing starting at 7 p.m.
The movie is in Hindi language and has English subtitles for people to follow who do not know the Hindi language.
“It’s three hours full of action, drama and music,” said CV Sastry, the man behind bringing the film to Yorkton.
Sastry told Yorkton This Week he was simply interested in offering something different in the community.
“The idea behind bringing this movie was twofold, give people the opportunity to see other genres of movies in Yorkton other than the usual Hollywood movies, and to make the new immigrants and students feel welcome in Yorkton and to avoid them a trip to Regina or Saskatoon to watch these big budget movies,” he said.
“I am very much interested in seeing people from different communities feel welcome in Yorkton. I myself have been in Yorkton for the past several years and I see a lot of students from India come over here. I also see that they miss seeing movies from Bollywood and so I thought of trying to bring some big budget movies to Yorkton. I spoke with Sheamus from Tower Theatre who supported me with this initiative, though it’s a new realm for him as well.”
The latest movie – scheduled to be shown – is a huge film in India.
“The current movie that I am showing is in the top-five list of Bollywood all time blockbuster in terms of earnings and some predict that it may become the top or the second biggest movie of Bollywood,” said Sastry, adding, “this is just week one of its release so this movie still has a lot of life to get to that level.”
The movie has a familiar theme though.
“This movie is about the rise of a gangster to epic level and his fall from there, which reminded me of the Godfather, just done Bollywood style,” said Sastry.
“This is also part two in this franchise, and part one is available to be watched on Amazon Prime.
Sastry said while he is excited to provide the films locally, it is not an easy process, and is certainly costly too.
“In terms of difficulty, it is pretty expensive to bring Bollywood movies to Yorkton,” he said. “This particular movie cost $3000 for the rights and the theatre rental for two days.
“As you can imagine, it’s a niche market and I am the first person to start this initiative, so not many people know yet we are doing this.”
But, Sastry is hopeful it catches on.
“This particular movie is 小蓝视频 sold out every show in India, and even in Calgary. In Regina and Saskatoon, I heard from friends that they were not able to get their hands on tickets when they wanted to watch this movie.
“In Yorkton, we had 51 people see the first day we showed the movie and we are hoping to see similar numbers on the second day as well. Once the word is out and more and more people find it comfortable to go to a different kind of movie I am hoping the footfall will be better here in Yorkton.”
It’s also a learning curve for Sastry dealing with accessing Bollywood movies.
“Another growing pain for us is that the distributor sends some movies to us digitally and some movies through hard disks -- I am still learning all this with Sheamus -- and we find that it sometimes gets too close for comfort for us to test the movies in time before showing it,” he said. “We are hoping that after these initial shows, we keep getting better at this and the distributors also start trusting us more.”
While there have been challenges in providing the movies locally, Sastry is hoping it can continue.
“In terms of making this an regular event, I will be trying my best to make it so, though cost is the biggest deterrent here,” he said. This is the second Bollywood movie I have brought to Yorkton and the footfall has got better, but it’s not to a point where I can run this operation as a sole person since it is a costly endeavor for one person.
“I am talking with the City and other local organizations to see whether they will be willing to either sponsor us or support us with grants for future such outings.
“Already quite a few businesses in town, have supported my efforts and places like Wok Box, Red Chilli Indian restaurant, Garam Masala Indian grocery store, Wayback Burger (opening soon), Mr. Mikes Steakhouse Casual, Getintheloop and Lakeview Insurance have all supported me in their own ways to support costs.
“I am hoping that more and more businesses support these kinds of initiative so that we can have a very diverse and yet inclusive community feel in Yorkton.”
