Iโ€™ve been thinking a lot about intervals lately. You know, that dreaded โ€œINTERVALโ€ card flashing across the screen just when the film is building up steam. For many, itโ€™s the break to rush to the loo, grab that overpriced popcorn, or light up their phones without the guilt of disturbing someone in the dark.ย For me, though? Not really. I time myself before the show, I donโ€™t always have the budget for popcorn, and Iโ€™d rather keep my phone away.

Yet, hereโ€™s the thing – I grew up on Bollywood (yes, yes, I know โ€œIndian Film Industryโ€ is the umbrella term, but allow me the shorthand). Bollywood films are designed with the โ€œinterval blockโ€ in mind. A cliffhanger, a dramatic twist, a punch of music – it almost justifies leaving the hall for ten minutes, because the film has been structured to allow that pause.

But what happens when the film youโ€™re watching was never designed to pause? Thatโ€™s where things get messy.

Why Intervals Exist:

In India, intervals arenโ€™t just a quirky tradition – theyโ€™re practically an institution. A large chunk of our films runs well over 150โ€“180 minutes (yes, thatโ€™s three hours of your life). Think of epics like โ€œMera Naam Jokerโ€ (1970, 244 minutes) or โ€œSangamโ€ (1964, 238 minutes). No audience could realistically sit through those without a break, and over time, filmmakers started writing with it in mind. The โ€œinterval bangโ€ – that perfectly placed cliffhanger, that revelation or burst of action right before the lights go up became part of the craft.

But thereโ€™s also a fascinating technical reason, as my dad once mentioned. Back in the days of film reels, a single print was often shared across multiple theatres. A 17โ€“18 reel movie might be divided into 3โ€“4 spools, rushed between halls on cycle carriers. If a reel arrived late, the projectionist had no choice but to halt the film. Sometimes that meant more than one interval; not because the director wanted it, but because the reel literally wasnโ€™t there yet.

The Business of Breaking:

Of course, it isnโ€™t all about artistic pacing. Intervals are a gold mine for theatres. Exhibitors have admitted for years that food and drink sales often bring in more profit than ticket salesยฒ. With multiplex ticket prices climbing by nearly 10โ€“15% every yearยณ, the economics have shifted – today, the Popcorn, the Samosa, and the Coke are what keep the lights on.

The footfall data tells an interesting story, too. In 2023, India saw around 94.3 crore visits to cinemas, with 15.7 crore unique moviegoersโด. On average, thatโ€™s six films a year per person. Hindi audiences skew lower, at just three films annually, while Tamil and Telugu audiences clock 8โ€“9 films a yearโต. Compare that to the 1990s: โ€œHum Aapke Hain Kounโ€ (1994) drew 7.39 crore viewers in itself, but even a juggernaut like โ€œBaahubali 2โ€ (2017), despite record-breaking revenue, drew 5.25 croreโถ.

The math is simple: fewer people are going to theatres, but theyโ€™re paying more, and concessions fill the revenue gap. In other words, that samosa is subsidizing your cinema.

Regal vs Multiplex – Two Experiences:

Breaking the Flow: The Interval Economy of Indian Cinema

Last month, Bombayโ€™s Regal Cinema did something rare: they ran a Hitchcock Month. โ€œPsycho,โ€ โ€œVertigo,โ€ โ€œRear Window,โ€ โ€œNorth by Northwestโ€ – all screened without interruptionโท. A friend of mine from film school went, and he came back raving about how immersive it felt, like finally seeing Hitchcock the way Hitchcock intended. I wasnโ€™t there, but listening to him describe the sheer grip of โ€œPsychoโ€ or the tension of โ€œRear Windowโ€ without a pause, I could almost imagine the experience.

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And then I thought of my own reality: sitting in a multiplex the very same month, watching โ€œSupermanโ€ and later โ€œFantastic Four: First Steps,โ€ only to have both cut in half by the dreaded โ€œINTERVAL.โ€ In โ€œSuperman,โ€ I was completely absorbed until the abrupt pause yanked me out and forced me to process it as a โ€œfirst halfโ€ and โ€œsecond halfโ€ instead of one cohesive film. By the time โ€œFantastic Fourโ€ rolled around, it was dรฉjร  vu – of that very same โ€œSupermanโ€ disruption. The films themselves werenโ€™t at fault; they simply werenโ€™t written for a pause.

Laws, Screens, and Social Media:

Hereโ€™s the twist: there isnโ€™t even a national law saying you must have an interval. A few states mandate breaks for films over two hours, but more often itโ€™s just habitโธ. And commerce. Indian films are built for it, so theatres extend the practice to foreign films too.

Infrastructure adds another layer. India still has fewer screens per capita than China or the U.S. In fact, a 2021 study found that the number of screens in a country explains box-office revenue better than either GDP or populationโน. With limited capacity, every extra rupee matters, and the halftime snack is built into the math.

Then thereโ€™s audience behaviour. OTT platforms have trained viewers to expect seamless pacing, to binge entire seasons without pause. Younger audiences especially report frustration with forced breaks, finding them disruptive to immersionยนโฐ. Meanwhile, social media has ironically reinforced the interval in Indian films. The โ€œinterval bangโ€ isnโ€™t just a storytelling device anymore; itโ€™s also a marketing beat. A perfectly timed shot before the lights come on, and Twitter (or X) explodes with โ€œinterval massโ€ postsยนยน.

To Break or Not to Break:

So where does that leave us? On one hand, intervals are part tradition, part survival, part commerce. On the other hand, theyโ€™re increasingly at odds with global cinema practices and the OTT-trained habits of younger audiences.

Do I hate intervals? Not exactly. Do I wish Hollywood films could run uninterrupted in India? Absolutely. Hearing my friend describe Hitchcock without a break made me realise how powerful that kind of immersive experience can be, even if Iโ€™ve only imagined it. But until the economics change – ticket pricing, screen density, revenue models – the glowing โ€œINTERVALโ€ card isnโ€™t going anywhere.

For now, it remains as Indian as the popcorn bucket and the samosa you balance in your lap. And as long as I keep timing my bladder, skipping the snacks, and rolling my eyes when the lights come up, Iโ€™ll keep negotiating with this uniquely Indian ritual – half cinematic tradition, half business model, and entirely unavoidable.

References:
ยน BFI South Asia Film Archive โ€“ Runtime records of Hindi classics
ยฒ FICCI-EY Media & Entertainment Report 2024 โ€“ Concession revenue data
ยณ FICCI-EY 2024 โ€“ Ticket price inflation, multiplex economics
โด Statista โ€“ Cinema Attendance in India 2023
โต Ormax Media โ€“ The Ormax Cinematix Report 2023
โถ Box Office India โ€“ Historical Footfalls: Hum Aapke Hain Koun vs Baahubali 2
โท Regal Cinema Bombay โ€“ Hitchcock Month Programming Schedule, July 2025
โธ Ministry of I&B โ€“ State-level exhibition rules on interval breaks
โน Suranovic, S. & Coate, S. (2021). Determinants of Global Box Office Revenues
ยนโฐ KPMG Media & Entertainment Report 2023 โ€“ OTT consumption patterns
ยนยน Ormax Blog (2022). The Interval Bang: Social Media and Audience Anticipation

Also Related to The Interval Economy of Indian Cinema: The Fading Legacy of Single-Screen Theatres in India

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One Comment

  1. Sanjeev Anwar says:

    We have grown up with intervals, rather in school days we used to go to cinema with our elders and used to wait for intervals and the sole reason was Fanta and unbranded chips, it used to taste better than caramel popcorn and Nachos and much cheaper.

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