When Zakia Rafiqi, 26, heard that Laila Majnu, a 2018 Bollywood film, was being re-released in cinemas this month, she knew she had to watch it again. “In 2018, I was among a handful of people in the cinema. This time, there were many more people.
A lot of them were laughing and crying,” says Ms Rafiqi, who went with her sister to a cinema in Delhi. Ms Rafiqi says she has an “emotional connect” with the film, a tragic love story set in Indian-administered Kashmir, where she is from. “It's good to see a piece of home on the big screen.
When they are driving through the streets of Kashmir, you feel you are there,” she says. Laila Majnu, written by popular filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, barely made a mark at the box office when it was first released, but did good business on its second run. It is one among dozens of Indian films - some made more than two decades ago - which are getting a new lease of life as people flock to watch them on the big screen.
India’s film industry, like others across the world , has seen ups and downs since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered cinemas for months and led many to turn to streaming services. It is yet to return to its former glory. “This year has been particularly bad for new [Bollywood] releases,” says trade analyst Komal Nahta.
The industry - dominated by Hindi-language Bollywood - is now churning out films more regularly, but it’s common to hear people say they will wait for a film to stream on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video i.