Facing more competition from Hollywood and the rise of streaming services, the once mighty Bollywood industry is facing its greatest crisis yet. Here’s why:
1 Changing tastes and more options Film fans in India now have access to streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime and are exposed to greater kinds of content than ever before. A growing number of viewers find Bollywood's films inadequate and are put off by formulaic entertainers, preferring movies with more substance.
2 Growing influence of Hollywood and regional cinema The dominance of Hindi cinema is slowly fading as Hollywood and films in other Indian languages attract more viewers. In 2016, Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book (pictured) and the acclaimed Marathi film Sairat out-earned most Bollywood offerings.
3 An outdated star system An over-reliance on populating a cast with well-known names over good storytelling continues to plague the industry. Moreover, the current business model, in which male stars command exorbitant prices and also take a profit of the earnings, is unsustainable for studios and producers. Leading male stars, such as Shah Rukh Khan (pictured), in Bollywood sometimes command up to 50 per cent of the film's budget; this figure is never above 20 per cent for their Hollywood counterparts.
4 Not enough screens With 8,000 screens, of which roughly 6,000 are decrepit, single-screen theatres, India only has one screen per 96,300 people. China, by comparison, has one screen per 45,000 people, while the United States has one per 7,800 people. As a result, film productions continually eat into each other's businesses, because they're usually catering to the same audience.
5 Ticket prices are too low India produces more films a year than any other film industry but, in 2015, charged average ticket prices of 150 to 250 rupees (Dh8 to Dh14) in multiplexes; the cost is lower for single-screens. By comparison, the average ticket price in the US at the same time was US$8.61 (Dh32).
6 Piracy is rampant Although digitisation of movie theatres has curbed piracy somewhat since the late 2000s, it is still extremely rampant and costs the business US$2 billion (Dh7.35bn) and several million theatre admissions a year.
Zombieland: Double Tap
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Stars: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone
Four out of five stars
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Results
- Brock Lesnar retained the WWE Universal title against Roman Reigns
- Braun Strowman and Nicolas won the Raw Tag Team titles against Sheamus and Cesaro
- AJ Styles retained the WWE World Heavyweight title against Shinsuke Nakamura
- Nia Jax won the Raw Women’s title against Alexa Bliss
- Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon beat Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
- The Undertaker beat John Cena
- The Bludgeon Brothers won the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos and New Day
- Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle beat Triple H and Stephanie McMahon
- Jinder Mahal won the United States title against Randy Orton, Rusev and Bobby Roode
- Charlotte retained the SmackDown Women’s title against Asuka
- Seth Rollins won the Intercontinental title against The Miz and Finn Balor
- Naomi won the first WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal
- Cedric Alexander won the vacant Cruiserweight title against Mustafa Ali
- Matt Hardy won the Andre the Giant Battle Royal
if you go
The flights Fly Dubai, Air Arabia, Emirates, Etihad, and Royal Jordanian all offer direct, three-and-a-half-hour flights from the UAE to the Jordanian capital Amman. Alternatively, from June Fly Dubai will offer a new direct service from Dubai to Aqaba in the south of the country. See the airlines’ respective sites for varying prices or search on reliable price-comparison site Skyscanner.
The trip
Jamie Lafferty was a guest of the Jordan Tourist Board. For more information on adventure tourism in Jordan see Visit Jordan. A number of new and established tour companies offer the chance to go caving, rock-climbing, canyoning, and mountaineering in Jordan. Prices vary depending on how many activities you want to do and how many days you plan to stay in the country. Among the leaders are Terhaal, who offer a two-day canyoning trip from Dh845 per person. If you really want to push your limits, contact the Stronger Team. For a more trek-focused trip, KE Adventure offers an eight-day trip from Dh5,300 per person.
