Soon after the release of every hyped-up movie or superstar vehicle, social media is flooded with video clips shot in theatres. It is a ritual for many audience members, fans and the general audience to shoot their favourite moments/scenes on their smartphones for circulation.
Social media handles with thousands and lakhs of followers amplify those videos in no time. While some production houses proactively get those videos taken off, others don't/can't. In any case, by the time the removal of the video clips happens, lakhs of people would have already watched them.
Is this a double-edged sword? Does the reel culture increase excitement or kill it? "This reel culture is more dangerous than piracy. People in theaters are filming the main high points of movies and uploading them on Instagram and other platforms. In no time, those videos are getting viral with millions of views spoiling the experience of viewers who have yet to watch that particular film," writes trade analyst Sumit Kadel.
The obvious contrarian view is that such clips accentuate interest in a movie because those clips are like mini trailers/teasers. "Most of the time, the clips capture the best moments from movies. Rarely do the worst portions go viral," a Twitter user opines.
