Bollywood Movie Screenings Attract Audiences at Farmingdale Multiplex

When the movie Slumdog Millionaire captured eight Academy Awards in 2009, including Best Picture, Indian-American movie-goers could only hope that more India-based movies would be distributed commercially in the U.S. While a movie of Slumdog’s popularity has not surfaced yet, throngs of Indian-Americans travel to the Farmingdale National Amusements Multiplex Theater each week to see screenings of new and older Indian movies. The only other movie theater on Long Island showing Bollywood movies is the Hicksville Broadway Multiplex.

“The Bollywood movies are a great success,” said Rachel Lulay, a representative of the Farmingdale theater. “We have been offering Indian films on a somewhat regular basis for the past few years in Farmingdale and attendance is excellent. We have found that there is an available local audience interested in these types of films and they do a very good business. The demographic in an area helps us and the film distributor on making the right decision to show Indian films.”

Typically, the movies have played first in India and are then distributed to different U.S. markets, such as the Farmingdale Multiplex. Most Indian films are in the two hour range but can run up to three hours or longer.

Recently, the theater showed an action comedy film one week and a suspense thriller drama the following week. The action comedy, Tees Maar Khan, directed by Farah Khan and starring Akshay Kumar and Akshaye Khanna, is about a criminal mastermind who plans to trick unwitting townspeople into helping him steal antiques from a heavily guarded train. The film was released on Dec. 24, 2010. It is an official remake of the 1966 Italian film After the Fox.

The suspense thriller drama, No One Killed Jessica directed by Rajkumar Gupta and starring Rani Mukherjee and Vidya Balan, is based on the true controversial Jessica Lall murder case. The first half of the film follows Jessica's sister, Sabrina as she seeks rightful justice to convict the accused responsible for her sister's death.

Both movies are spoken in Hindi with English subtitles. Although it varies by movie, typically most of the movies are in Indian with English subtitles, says the theater representative. The theater determines if the movie will only run on a Saturday evening or throughout the week, depending on the film and available screen space. Unlike U.S.-made films, Bollywood movies are usually unrated, thus it is up to individuals to determine who should watch the movie.

“The Indian movies can attract families depending on the film’s content as well as non-Indians,” Lulay said.