Main Vaapas Aaunga, Tezpur And The Power Of Word Of Mouth

When Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga opened in theatres across India on June 12, 2026, it played in multiplexes across major cities and even reached Guwahati. My hometown of Tezpur, though barely 180 kilometres away and home to around 1.5 lakh people, wasn’t on the release map.

For moviegoers here, that wasn’t particularly surprising. Smaller towns often find themselves at the bottom of distributors’ priority lists.

Films like Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound or Anurag Kashyap’s Bandar never made it to theatres in Tezpur. Yet a film like Haunted 3D: Echoes Of The Past will find a release here before quickly vanishing into oblivion.

Exhibitors naturally back films they believe will deliver immediate returns, and the absence of a marquee cast makes it even harder for films like these to secure a release in places like Tezpur.

But over the next two weeks, something interesting happened.

As appreciation for Main Vaapas Aaunga spread through word of mouth and social media, people in Tezpur began asking why the film wasn’t playing there. The demand eventually reached SVF Cinemas, which responded by scheduling a single afternoon show at around 3:45 p.m. over the weekend, from Friday, June 26, to Sunday, June 28.

It was a cautious move. Afternoon shows in smaller towns are rarely expected to draw crowds unless a film is already a blockbuster.  This one did.

The response was good enough for the multiplex to continue screenings through the weekend. By Monday, two more shows had been added. Before long, the film had been shifted to more audience-friendly evening slots, where it continued to run for a few more weeks.

For a town like Tezpur, that is anything but routine.  Films that arrive weeks after their initial release are usually given a couple of token shows before quietly disappearing if audiences don’t turn up. Main Vaapas Aaunga did exactly the opposite. The more people watched it, the more shows it received. What happened in Tezpur echoed the film’s remarkable journey across the country.

After a disappointing opening day, Main Vaapas Aaunga was widely written off by the trade. But instead of fading away, it slowly built an audience. It wasn’t expensive marketing campaigns that changed its fortunes. It was ordinary moviegoers recommending it to friends, relatives and colleagues, and social media amplified those conversations.

The same dynamic unfolded in Tezpur, albeit on a much smaller scale.

For years, the industry has debated whether theatrical exhibition in smaller towns is gradually losing relevance in the age of streaming.

When audiences genuinely connect with a film, they are still willing to leave home, buy a ticket and experience it on the big screen. A good film is never guaranteed commercial success, but one that strikes an emotional chord can generate a kind of momentum that no marketing campaign can manufacture.

Main Vaapas Aaunga proved that audiences are capable of finding and sustaining such films, and Tezpur became a small but telling example.

ALSO READ | Chupa Chupi Review: A Popular Web Series Loses Its Way On The Big Screen