No Mashallah at Sahara Centre

Andy Fordham, Technical and Digital Cinemas Project Director, Grand Cinemas, attributes the fault to bulb failure.

“It’s a one-in-a-million chance for something like that to happen. If it was just once, I could explain that it’s a technical issue because the bulb failed. That’s not unusual and it happens more frequently than most people are aware of. But three screenings with the same outcome, that’s very odd and peculiar. I mean, these shows were at different times, in different theatres, with different projectors, different bulbs… I don’t understand it,” Fordham said.

Bulbs have a life-span of 400 hours, after which they start to deteriorate, he explained.

Left disappointed

But Sadaf, a 30-year-old housewife, said the technical failures weren’t her problem. The mother of two had taken her daughters, aged 10 and four, to the cinema on August 21 to watch the 8.15pm show on screen 1. “I was so disappointed when the video of the song didn’t play towards the end. All we had was the audio, on a blank screen. It’s a shame because my daughters were looking forward to watching the song on the big screen. They refused to leave the cinema. I had a tough time consoling them,” she says.

Ratika, 27, who also watched the 8.15 pm show said she felt the song was not shown deliberately. “Perhaps the management didn’t want us to linger. They probably wanted us to empty the theatre so they can prepare for the next screening,” she said.

Fordham rubbished the suggestions that the Arabic-influenced song had been censored.

“We get a digital file that we push and play. It goes on till the movie stops. We’ve no control over it. I don’t know how this happened. It’s just a coincidence because other shows had no problems.”