Cinema halls, locality and urban life

Abstract

■ Drawing on ethnographic field research in Bangalore, a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual city in South India, this article explores the relationship between cinema and the city and the significance of the urban setting for the cinema experience, for moviegoers and film business insiders. Contrary to received understandings of cinema as a universal and placeless experience, interviews with audiences, filmmakers, distributors and exhibitors reveal that locality is important for the framing and embedding of cinema, for the meanings associated with any particular film or genre. The article suggests that urban space-cultures which situate cinema are consequential for both the box office performance of the film and the audiences’ experience.

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