The Two Rupee Digiplex !

Many Indian villages may still not have electricity, but they have their own sources of entertainment. A remote village like Amiyan of Chambal district in MP has makeshift video parlours, where villagers can watch a movie by paying just two rupees.


DURING MY TRAVEL, I was in Bhind, a district in the Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh I happened to be at a village Amiyan. As I was walking through the village, I saw some boys around a house with a makeshift shed. To satisfy my curiosity, I peeked in; it took me a minute to adjust, as inside it was dark and dingy. A group of young boys mostly in their teens were huddled around a TV at the end of the room watching a film. I asked one what they were watching- it was a not a very popular Hindi movie. I realized I was in a makeshift video parlour.

Before I could speak further, an old man smoking a bidi whisked me away to an adjoining room. He offered me a place to sit and a glass of water and a cigarette too, though I am not a smoker. He started offering an explanation that they have a big family and it is very expensive nowadays and his son (next door watching the video) works hard and this is just to pass time…..I was a bit surprised as to why he was telling me all this. Did he want something? And then it struck me – he thought may be I am here to inspect his business, which is illegal. He had converted his house into a local video parlour, and his son was running it, showing movies daily.

I explained to him that I am not here to inspect, so there was no reason to worry. He seemed to relax, so I expressed my wish to speak to the boys who were watching the show. I had a chat with one who was about 15 years old. “What are you watching?” He said it was a movie from a tawa. Tawa! (A flat cooking plate used to cook chapattis). He meant a video compact disc, which being flat and round like a cooking plate had been renamed. I asked if they pay for watching movies. Yes, was the reply- it is one rupee for one tawa and two rupee for two tawas. Oh great! Since one disc has half a movie, it costs two rupees to see the entire film. Most discs are pirated and tend to get stuck after multiple viewings. They call it as chipak gaya – the same phrase as when a chapatti gets stuck to the cooking plate. It was quite an amazing terminology!

It was humid and stuffy inside the parlour, but the excitement of a movie kept the attention going. When I was around there was no electricity in the village, although it has electricity connection. “The parlour runs on a battery, that is the reason we charge two rupees,” explained the old man.

For us in cities and metros cinema halls are air conditioned, and now digiplexes (or multiplexes) with technology offering us plethora of facilities. Film viewing is an experience now. But for people in villages like Amiyan, well, they too have a place for films. Their digiplex may run on batteries and may be stiflingly hot, but it provides entertainment next to their homes, at a price that they can afford.

Contributed by Anil Gulati