Tanthapolis Cinema - A breather in entertainment business

James Khangenbam *

Tanthapolis Cinema at Sanakeithel, Lamphel

Except for a government undertaking, film exhibition hall with modern technology and decent infrastructural set up was a distant dream until two private players Tanthapolis Cinema and Kumecs Cinema rolls out their services to public few weeks back.

The first week for Tanthapolis was a huge success with a footfall of 6500 cine goers as James Cameroon's film 'Avatar – the Way of Water' draws a huge crowd. The same film was also screened at MSFDS and Kumecs Cinema around the same time. However, in the 4th week of Avatar, Tanthapolis attracts around 300 people.

Cine lovers are experiencing the good quality sound and picture at the three theatres which are at a radius of just 6 kilometers. For Tanthapolis Cinema it will be interesting to get into how it started and who all are behind the grand cinema exhibition service.

Bryan Akoijam and Sameer Luwang were already into entertainment business as they launch their YouTube channel Tantha back in 2014. Tantha now has a million subscriber. Tantha draws a monthly revenue of around Rupees one lakh and eighty thousand.

The channel also has a revenue sharing policy with audio visual music partners. Very recently, the creator of video music album 'Wakhalgee was honoured with a sum of Rs 1,03,240 (8 months revenue) from Tantha.

The success of Tantha YouTube channel is solely due to the support from film fraternity claimed Bryan Akoijam in an exclusive interview.

Bryan a graduate in English literature from Delhi University and Sameer after completing Electronic Engineer from South India ventured into the entertainment business. Before they launch Tanthapolis they were screening films at MSFDS on a hall rental basis, that is where they access the feasibility of starting a movie theatre of their own.

Tanthapolis Cinema at Sanakeithel, Lamphel

Tathapolis Cinema is a 339 sitting capacity cinema hall, with 2 k resolution Barcos Projector, 52/25 feet screen (the largest one in Manipur), 7.1 Dolby sound. More to that the theatre is a renovation of the once popular cinema hall Shanker Talkies located at Sanakeithel, Lamphel.

Sashikanta Laiphrakpam a well experience projectionist runs the technical room. Akee Sorokhaibam is a consultant. Besides others in the team who makes Tanthapolis Cinema. They are all young people running the show and scaling new heights.

About the investment ; the team pitched for fund and secured loans from NEDFi, they also won the Manipur Start-up fund with subsidy from the State government. Besides the two co-founder of Tanthapolis Cinema - Samir and Bryan also pulled in their personnel savings to convert their dream into possibility.

On a progressive note, Bryan Akoijam has an opinion that the present Manipuri cinema culture needs a drastic change. He felt the need to upgrade Manipuri Cinema. He claimed that the fiction taste is missing in Manipuri film.

He said that, "Cinema is to relax. We need to show a dream world. The capability of dream world has been halted by many restraints. It cannot be commercialised beyond our State. The reason why is it cannot give the flavour of fiction. It is in a different mode. They need rapid policy changes. Tantha will also start film production. National or regional project. Our concept and idea are open. So, we need an open market".