Duration no bar, is the message that the audience is giving to filmmakers

Sheetal

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi crossed a little over 2 hour 30 minutes runtime. Then came Jhund and The Batman, both of 3 hours duration. The Kashmir Files (TKF) took the trend of long-duration movies a step forward. Well, long form of storytelling is in!

Actor Atul Srivastav, who played a journalist in TKF, explains, “As a part of the project, I had a fair idea of what the film wanted to put forth. It resulted in a lengthy filming schedule and a film with a long runtime. Initially we had doubts whether the audience would have such a long attention span. But they proved us wrong.”

While not calling lengthy runtime a trend, he says, “It’s the call of the writer, filmmaker or the story. And at the same time, viewers have to be credited too. Now, as projects like The Kashmir Files have won the audiences’ confidence, it is clear that people do not care about the length. Be it a serious subject or a biopic or a larger-than-life South Indian film, they will watch as long as it is real or entertaining.”

Needless to say, The Batman tried a different approach and opted for a longer runtime as groundwork for the sequels. Meanwhile, SS Rajamouli went way beyond his previous outing Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2hr 47 m) as his latest release RRR crossed the already set three-hour mark by six minutes. It has broken all previously set box office records of this year.

Bhootnath director Vivek Sharma says that digital platforms are the driving force behind this trend. He says, “Due to OTT, people have no qualms over sitting for long hours to finish a series or a film. I think films will continue to be around two hours of duration. Only period films or certain action films which often have multiple sub-plots will lean towards the runtime of three hours.”

OTT has broadened the horizon of the masses and now they are able to differentiate between good content from bad. It is the argument put forth by Janjot Singh, director Chal Mera Putt, for the shift of the movie industry towards epic films. He says, “The growth of OTT platforms is the key factor driving this change. In fact, the growth of OTT, the pandemic-induced lockdowns, and better internet plans—all happened at the perfect time to steer filmmaking into a new direction. Content-driven subjects are in demand today irrespective of the length, star power or huge budgets.”

Actor-producer Mukesh Rishi, who is set to make his first Punjabi film, Nidarr, feels the picturisation and subject of Gangubai is commendable but it won’t be easy to sustain such a standard year round. He says, “It’s a gradual process. As it was while coming down from three-hour films to two-hour duration. For topics like Gangubai, TKF and even Batman, it is unimaginable to compress them into a 1hr 30min or 2hr slot. So, although we have risk-takers for they have quality scripts and budget, I think the standard-length films (2 hr 40 m) are bound to stay.”

So, while the three-hour films seem to have clicked with the audience, we check whether all is well for exhibitors and distributors. Raj Juneja, distributer representative in tricity, says, “It is true that longer runtime means lesser number of shows, but as long as the film is doing good business, less number of shows is not our immediate concern. Moreover, nothing is tougher than the lockdowns. So, less shows is the least of our worries as long as people are showing up in huge numbers.”