A comparative discussion between film and theatre
"Movies will make you famous; television will make you rich, theatre will make you good."- Terrence Mann
Indian theatre has a very rich history. Theatre in India starts in 2000 BCE. We can find the existence of different theatre practices with the help of the books written by Bharat Muni namely ‘Natyasastra’. With the development of Cinema and Television the crowd rather the audience of the Theater has been decreasing day by day. Though it is considered the purest of all the art forms, we mostly see theatre artists all over the nation struggling with their income and finances. We are pointing out some of the reasons that lead the audiences to the film theatre instead of stage plays.
Realism attracts an audience!
There are certain differences between realism in the theatre and realism in cinema. In the theatre, we cannot make everything as real as in reality. There are certain barriers between space and also time as well on the other hand cinema offers a more realistic approach to a theme or a story. The audience relates more to the film rather can be said they can see themselves or the people around through that film. The film is not at all dependent on a particular space as different scenes of a particular film can be shot in several places that also help the audience to relate more easily.
Marketing can make wonders!
Marketing of cinema and television series is way ahead of the marketing of the Indian Theatre productions. The stage producers and the directors of different plays do not spend much on the marketing of their plays. The ‘100 crore clubs’, ‘500 crore clubs’ and many other marketing strategies help to capture the pulse of the young people in India. The information regarding a film can reach through different mediums to an audience but the same kind of information regarding a play or any theatre production cannot reach the audience. Even, we cannot get the same vibe or energy when the information regarding theatre plays comes to us. Many corporate companies also like to produce or get attached to a movie production rather than a theatre production.
Televisions!
Television plays a very important role in capturing the attention of the common public. Television channels mostly showcase or rather can be said promotes cinema instead of theatre productions. As the television has reached most of the houses all over India, this affects hard at the theatre through theatre productions likely to travel to different small towns and villages before with their plays.
The clash between the theatre and cinema should not be raised as they are two different forms of art and storytelling. Though the emergence of cinema has affected the theatre audiences, the common people like to go to cinema halls instead of theatre halls. The economy of cinema is much bigger than the theatre though it carries our heritage and culture more profoundly.
