The superstar highlighted that India is way behind the United States and China in terms of cinema screen count.”For the size of the country and the number of people living here, we have very few theatres. I think we have around 10,000 screens. In the US, which has one-third the population of India, they have 40,000 screens.So they are way ahead of us. China has 90,000 screens.”Now, even in this 10,000, half of them are in the South and the other half is in the rest of the country. So for a Hindi film typically, it is around 5,000 screens,” Aamir said.Even for blockbuster movies, only a tiny fraction of Indians are able to watch them in theatres, he noted.”Only two per cent of the population in our country, which is recognised as a film loving country, watches our biggest hits in theatres.Where is the rest — 98 per cent — watching a movie?” he asked.He also lamented that many areas in India, including regions like Konkan, have no theatres at all.”People in those areas will hear about the films, will see the chatter online but there is no way to watch them…that’s a very unfortunate situation.”So the first thing we need to do is that we must have more screens,” Aamir added.On the first day of the summit, Aamir’s contemporary Shah Rukh Khan had also batted for more theatres in the country.”I still believe the call of the day is simpler, cheaper theatres in smaller towns and cities so that we can showcase Indian films in whichever language to a larger majority of Indians for cheaper rates.Otherwise, it’s becoming very expensive, only in big towns,” he said.At the session, Aamir was joined by producers Ritesh Sidhwani, Dinesh Vijan, Namit Malhotra, PVR Inox founder Ajay Bijli and American film producer Charles Roven.
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