Changes Over The Years 2

In continuation of my yesterday’s blog  on changes over the years. Here are some other items which went for drastic changes over the years.

Watching Movies –  In the 50s to watch movies you have to go to Theatre also known as Cinema Halls. Where the movies/films were screened  with the help of twin projector system. The cinema owner used to receive the reels of the film from Distributors, and after the film run was complete , the same were returned to the Distributors. In the 50s & 60s the price of entry to Cinema Halls were in the range of Rs 0.50, 1.00, 1.50 & 2.00. In Mumbai some Luxury Air Conditioned theatres were charging upto Rs 3.00. In the 50s and early 60s most of the films were generally in Black & White, but by mid 60s  production of colour films started in big way. In the 70s more than 95% films were in colour. By 70s slowly the owners started constructing Air Conditioned Cinema Halls  and they also started increasing the ticket prices, and for comfort audience started accepting increase in ticket prices. With the advent of TV, films were also telecast on TV on weekly basis. Film Ptroducers started selling TV rights of their films. In the 80s with the starting of colour telecast and introduction of Video Cassette Recorder & Player, people started watching films by playing video cassette in VCR/VCP, film producer started giving video cassette rights and cassettes of all the films started appearing in the market. In every locality Video Cassette Libraries started mushrooming, from where you could get video cassette on rent. Pirated video cassettes also started appearing in the market and business of Cinema Halls went down and due to piracy film producers also started loosing business. This continued till mid 90s, when audience realized the real fun is watching the film in cinema hall. In the 90s with the entry of Satelite television & the privately owned channels, started telecasting. There were few channels in existence by late 90s , which were showing only Bollywood, Regional and Hollywood films, and now film producers also started selling Satelite TV rights. By this decade the price of tickets were varying from Rs 30 to Rs 80 depending upon the locality and services offered by Cinema Halls. Then by the turn of century and its first decade there came the concept of Multiplexes in Malls in metros, big cities and towns, where multiple small theatres/cinema halls used  to screen films at one place. In the multiplex cinema halls seats were very comfortable and capacity of cinema halls were low ranging from 150 to 300 seats, where as early halls were of the capacity ranging from 800 to 1200 seats. These Multiplexes also offered different varieties of eatables, drinks, games corners etc. The tickets in these Multiplexes were ranging from Rs 150 to 300, depending upon day of the week and timing of show. Earlier there used be generally max 4 shows in a normal cinema hall, in a day, but multiplexes started show starting from 9 am and with last show at 10 pm or even later. This trend of multiplexes continued in next decade also, and now the ticket price of new hit film can be anything, and it can go upto Rs 500 or even more. One more thing also started in this decade, that you could  download movies from various sites available on the Internet and save in your computer and then watch the film on your computer at convenient time. Now you can also see movies on your mobile phones. Now you can also watch movies on the internet through many web channels.

So you see how the movie watching system went for changes over the years.

Transport System–  In the  50s for public transport there were govt/private operated buses and few taxis in big cities, in other part of the country Cycle rickshaw, Man pulled Rickshaw, Horse pulled Tonga were available for transport, in the later half of 50s in some big cities 3 wheelers vehicles were started(now known as Auto Rickshaw). Electric Local Trains were also available in city of Bombay, which were and still are the lifeline of the city.

I, being a Mumbaikar, will enlighten the readers  how the transport system went on changing over the decades

-In 50s the basic transport system were local train Network, which was the main life line of Bombay during those days, and it still continues to lifeline of Metro City. In those days also there were three local railway networks ie Western Railway(running from Virar to Churchgate), Central Railway(running from VT to Kasara/Karjat) and Harbour Line( running from VT to Mankhurd/Bandra). Other Tansport modes were Govt run BEST Buses, Private Buses, Local Taxis and in the distant suburbs even Tongas were also available.

-In the 60s and 70s basically same transport modes were available except there were no private buses for public use. Local trains frequency was increased as per increased patrons.

-In the 80s first time in Bombay , 3 Wheeler Auto Rickshaws were introduced and they were allowed to run only in suburbs. Other transport mode remain same. Harbour line trains which were running from VT to Bandra were extended upto Andheri and trains running upto Mankhurd were extended upto Belapur( New Bombay). Even BEST buses started operating some routes to city of Thana and New Bombay.

-There were not much improvement in  transport system during 90s and first decade of new century, except that in later part after 2007/08 some private cab operator started the operation, where you could book cab in advance for  particular time, and you were picked up from the location given by you.

-In the second decade Mumbai city got their first Metro route in operation, this route was between Versova and Ghatkopar, which has become very popular with commuters. Work has alreadt strated for 6 more metro Routes. Another addition in Transport system was APP based Cabs like Ola and Uber.

It was rather surprising that Govt decided so late to start Metro Rail network in Mumbai, where as in capital city of Delhi it was started  2 decades earlier.

So friends, I hope you enjoy reading about changes which happened across country in last 6 decades.

Awaiting your feed back/views/comments  on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

13^th Dec 2018