Famine sucks life out of Maharashtra's Touring Talkies

Sitting on the Mandovi river bank here, where he has set up his maiden Goa show of the 107-year-old Touring Talkies, Vijay Kulkarni has mixed feelings.
He is excited about the fact that this is the first time time that the Touring Talkies has traveled outside Maharashtra.
"But this may be the last time too," says 65-year-old Kulkarni, the owner of Sri Ram Touring Talkies and Vijay Touring Talkies.
According to him, the three-year-long famine in Maharashtra which patronised this industry has sucked the life out of the Touring Talkies industry.
"The Touring Talkies are in their climax. Now the movie will get over," he told PTI.

"People in Marathwada, Vidarbha and Western Maharashtra are dying even for a drop of drinking water, how can they patronise movies now ?" asks, Kulkarni, who hails from Maharashtra's Satara village.

The Touring Talkies which used to exhibit shows in a tent during 'jatras' (traditional Hindu festivals across Marathwada, Vidarbha and Western Maharashtra) are hardly appreciated now as they have just become a ritual due to the famine.
"Each jatra used to host 30-40 shows and sometimes 10 Touring Talkies companies used to set up their tents there. But that has now become thing of the past," he lamented.
The Talkies are banned from putting up shows in urban areas where theatres exists. With patrons struggling to piece together their lives in rural Maharashtra, the Touring Talkies is facing a shutdown.

The Talkies industry, which began as early as 1904 when a Parsi businessman Manik Seth showed the first ever 'silent movie' for the Britishers, is now slowly inching towards its demise.