John Abraham and Sameera Reddy in Taxi No. 9211, a popular option at the standalone theatres

Lunch with Faltu, tea with Geisha and an after-dinner drive in Taxi No. 9211. And that?s no longer a multiplex menu card. To meet ? if not beat ? the growing plex pressure, single-screen theatres are now playing the multiple movie card, beaming up to four different films a day.

With the cineplex signature being adopted by owners and programmers of standalone cinemas, viewers last week could kick off the day with a Mixed Doubles match, cross the Kantatar, follow it up with a Faltu before keeping a date with John Abraham.

?Calcuttans these days don?t just walk into movie theatres, they come in for specific films,? feels distributor-exhibitor Arijit Dutta, whose Priya has been playing anything between two to four movies a day for some time now. ?By programming different films at different times in the same theatre, we are ensuring more repeat footfalls.?

The new structure has come with its new rules ? English movies at noon, Bengali films for matinee shows and Hindi blockbusters in the evening and night. What it has also meant is that standalone theatres are not necessarily following the proverbial 12, 3, 6, 9 time structure. ?The first half of the day, we try to stick as close as possible to the usual timings but evening onwards we play around with the timings,? reveals Dutta.

There is no tampering with the ticket prices, though. With an evening balcony seat at single-screen halls in the Rs 60-Rs 100 bracket, against the multiplex rates of Rs 120 to Rs 200 for the same film, the price advantage remains firmly with the standalone properties.

The multiplexes are keeping a keen eye on the standalone theatres. Says Vikas Syal, general manager of INOX (Forum): ?The rates at which they offer tickets to the big movies, the numbers will surely go up with more options at one place. But they wouldn?t be able to steal the multiplex audiences, who are used to a certain ambience and service at the plex properties.?

For some, this new move is not an option, but a necessity. Says Pranab Ray, owner of Menoka: ?These days, films are largely made with the multiplex audiences in mind. So, it is almost impossible to fill up 1,000-seat theatres with a movie meant for 200 to 300 people. And if we run all four shows of such non-star serious films, we won?t be able to survive. That?s why we mix and match and run multiple films on the same day. For a Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir Khan film, we will obviously go for the regular four-shows-a-day format.?

The new method to the movie madness seems to be working already, with people catching back-to-back shows. ?The craze for watching movies has gone down over the years because of TV. With the new format, we are giving the audiences more reasons to return to the big screen,? says a spokesperson for Basusree cinema.