Region's Indian population losing its biggest theater

Saturday, June 30, 2007

By ERIC HSU
STAFF WRITER

TYSON TRISH / THE RECORD
The North Bergen multiplex is a different kind of venue for Indian movies, which are often shown in cramped one-screen houses that tend to be run-down.

The region's largest Indian movie theater will go dark after this weekend, with first-run Hollywood movies slated to replace boisterous Bollywood fare.

The closing of the Bollywood theater, which occupies half of the 12-screen Columbia Park multiplex perched above the Lincoln Tunnel expressway in North Bergen, will mark the end of an era for fans who have flocked to the theater as a cultural touchstone and escape.

"I will hate to see this go," said Jersey City resident Ajay Parekh, who came to the theater this week with his 8-year-old daughter and in-laws. "There are not that many good theaters out there. Most are much smaller."

For the last few years the Bollywood theater, run by Bergen County resident Vijay Shah, has been the biggest showcase of Indian movies in New York and New Jersey, screening 50-plus films a year on six screens. Blockbusters can sell 10,000 tickets on a good weekend, while a more modest film might still draw several thousand moviegoers in a run, Shah said.

The changeover in the theater is being prompted by the owner of the building, Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner Companies. The Bollywood theater has been sharing the multiplex with a movie house showing second-run Hollywood films, but property owners believe a first-run house will offer better returns, said Robert Rediker, a senior vice president for Forest City. The second-run screens made the transition on Friday.

Down to the last reel

Even if Shah had found a way to extend his lease, the theater's days were likely numbered. Forest City in December received approval to demolish the building to make way for a 29-story condo and shopping center, though Rediker said those plans were on hold.

So this weekend will be Shah's last in operation, he said, leaving local Bollywood fans facing the prospect of driving to Middlesex County or Queens for new films.

Those fans include Mahesh Ratanji of Clifton, who described Shah's theater as a focal point for his family. Every week, Ratanji said, he and dozens of extended family members meet at the theater, where they can all choose a film that suits their taste.

"We come here and then go for dinner together. We're going to miss it," Ratanji said.

Revenues from the Indian movie industry are only a fraction of Hollywood's profits. But what it lacks in money it makes up for in volume, doubling Hollywood's output each year, according to industry figures.

Many Bollywood films are potboiler romances interspersed with song-and-dance numbers and slapstick comedy, but adherents say the films are increasingly sophisticated and portray the lives of Indians overseas as well as in India. Most films are in Hindi with English subtitles.

Karshiman Patel attended a two-for-one special in North Bergen this week with her cousin, Clifton resident Manish Sopariwala, pausing at an intermission to buy puffed rice snacks from the theater's Indian-food concession stand.

Patel did not give glowing reviews to the feature she was seeing, a big budget comedy set in London called "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom," but said she still loved Bollywood films for their blend of music and style.

"I came for the music and the outfits," she said. "The new movies represent the new fashion."

Shah has taken pride in running a theater that offers clean and well-maintained facilities; many smaller theaters tend are single-screen houses that can be run-down. The North Bergen location has also been centrally located for bus lines from New York and the Indian community in northern and central New Jersey, which is the third-largest in the country.

"It's the cheapest round-trip ticket to India," Shah said. "Where else would you find so many Indian people getting together and talking with each other in this foreign land?"

But Shah acknowledged that the overall picture for Bollywood theaters, a $25 million market in the United States, was weakening, as theaters face increasing competition from DVDs.

"The trend is scary. Theater attendance is not on the rise. It's constant or declining," he said.

Shah said the region's tight commercial real estate market, dominance of mass-market theater chains and competition from Hollywood were also pressuring independent movie houses. Shah has resuscitated his theater once, having moved to his current location from another North Bergen multiplex that was forced to close several years ago.

"There is a changing tide," he said. "I don't know how it will shape up in the future. I don't know if Hollywood will eat up Bollywood or Bollywood will sustain its charm."

E-mail: mailto:hsu@northjersey.com