Squabble for the silver screen

The skirmish between studios and theatre owners over releasing films online is an aberration. Theatres are not going anywhere

On any given Saturday in the seventies the Kohli clan would clamber into their doughty Fiat and head out to the drive-in theatre in Bandra East. It was where the Banda-Kurla Complex now stands in Mumbai. We would buy tickets to the first show from 7 pm to 10 pm, park next to a small stand with two speakers and hook one to the door of our car, one among hundreds. Some families sat inside their cars, others on folding chairs or little dhurries on the ground and watch Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se (1978) or Kaala Patthar (1979) or whatever