How 2024 became the year of re-released films
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. On a muggy August afternoon, the entrance to the iconic Regal theatre in Mumbai is clogged. A hand-painted poster of Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975) is mounted on the scaffolding, and a crowd has gathered to watch the film.
A month later, Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar (1963) is playing in theatres. The familiar poster of a woman walking against a silhouette of urbanity is displayed outside the ticket counters and the title of the film, designed by Ray in his signature typography, is imprinted above. Next to it is a billboard of Rahi Anil Barve’s Tumbbad (2018), with a strapping man and a fearful child.
The year is 2024, but it’s difficult to tell at the movies. In the last couple of months, a host of Indian films which premiered years ago have been released in the theatres. This is unprecedented for urban centres; old films rarely play in multiplexes here, and definitely not with this frequency.
It’s been an eclectic mix: Gautham Vasudev Menon’s maudlin Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein (2001), Anurag Kashyap’s hinterland revenge drama, Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), S. Ramanathan’s comedy Bombay to Goa (1972), Jyoti Swaroop’s riotous Padosan (1968). Each week comes with the new announcement of older titles—Subhash Ghai’s Taal (1999) came out last weekend, Dibakar Banerjee’s Khosla Ka Ghosla! (2006) will return in late October.
What is surprising is, although these films played in theatres before, and have been rewatched on smaller screens, people are paying to watch them again. Two of Imtiaz Ali’s popular works, Jab We Met (2007) and Rockstar (2011), re-released in 2023 and 2024 respectively, to a rousing response, with Rockstar earning more than Rs. 10 crore when it was re-released in May.
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