In the year 1963 Puducherry became officially an integral part of India, however French is one of the official languages in Puducherry and a good number of population still speak French in Puducherry. In order to locate the lived experiences of cinemagoers in their social, historical and cultural contexts and to investigate the role of cinema going within everyday life and leisure culture, scholars turn most often to qualitative methodologies, small research designs and micro level ethnographic approaches, interviews, observations, diaries and other written and spoken accounts, testimonials and memories. Cinema theatres were present in almost all the main locations in Puducherry until 13 of them closed down in the recent past. Among the closed theatres majority of them were A-class releasing stations. Anna theatre, which was located near to Puducherry new bus stand, became Mass hotel. More than picture quality, sound quality was one aspect that most of the people discussed about cinema theatres. Another aspect of theatre preference stated in the interview was budget. Some of the observations from the study are; the location of a cinema theatre has a role in its growth. A locality with cinema loving/cinema going audience will definitely help the theatre to survive. Also true in the case of rural cinema theatres like Vasantharaja and Asok as well as Jaya, where the audience mostly from the locality itself.
Accounts, Testimonials, Officially, Undeniable, Qualitative Methodologies
