Aamir Khan bats for more cinema halls to reach Indian masses – ‘Imagine if Dhurandhar...’

The Indian film industry, one of the biggest across the globe, is being held back from its potential due to a lack of proper theatrical infrastructure, said Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan.

India has the second-oldest film industry in the world, with Bollywood in the lead; however, the number of screens in the country is far fewer when compared to China and the USA.

In an interview with Variety India, Aamir said that for a country like India, many more cinema halls are needed.

“India's a huge country; it's like a continent, it's massive and each state has its own language, its own culture, its own films,” he said. “In India, we need many more cinema halls – more outlets, so that we can reach a lot more people.”

The superstar explained that to compete with China, which roughly has one lakh screens compared to India's 9,000, “we increase our number of screens”.

“What is the comparison? We are one-tenth their size in outlets. Which is why one big film when in China does huge business; it does two billion US dollars,” he noted. “Just in China, not in the rest of the world. Just in China, big films do that kind of business. The big films over there do business worth billions of dollars. I am talking of US dollars.”

Aamir emphasised that the increase in the number of cinema screens will directly improve the business of thecinema industry. “When we increase our number of screens, you'll see the business expand at the grassroots level. The base of your pyramid will go wide.”

Citing the example of blockbuster hit Dhurandhar, starring Ranveer Singh, Aamir wondered what the collection of the spy-thriller, which is already Bollywood’s all-time highest grosser currently, would have been had there been more screens in India.

Dhurandhar has earned over ₹1300 crore at the worldwide box office, and is still running at several cinemas.

“Let's take the example of Dhurandhar, which has done around ₹1,000 crore," he said. “Now, imagine if it had been released in not 5,000 screens but in 15,000 screens. Massive!”

“So, this is what I'm trying to say. The real change will come when the number of screens goes up,” Aamir reiterated. “Because there are so many districts in India right now that don't have a single screen.”