The political economy of the single-screen cinema with respect to Bombay cinema

This article seeks to provide a broad political and cultural economy of the single-screen theatre with respect to Bombay cinema between the 1950s and the 1970s. It is argued that key to these economies of the single-screen cinema hall is ‘intensity’, a phenomenon that swings between actual commercial performance of the key blockbusters of Bombay cinema history, that surprisingly enough when corrected for inflation tops the 1000-crore+ grosser films of our times, and a certain energy of cinephilia which here is mainly thought through via the idea of repeat-viewing of great cinematic hits by the audience. Additionally, the single-screen film economy of the 1970s is also characterised by a fabulous catholicity of film types that were produced, released and went on to become huge hits, as well as by an equal catholicity of star power of a wide variety of performers in this period. Finally, there is thought about the centrality to the Muslim film audience in the golden era of the single-screen theatre through an analysis of the content of the films of the all-time greatest hits of Bombay cinema as well as demographic speculations.