We went for a Bollywood movie in a theater after a long time (~12 years, I think). Is it just me, or is the volume for Bollywood movies cranked up? We noticed it when they switched trailers from Hollywood movies to Bollywood. It gave me a headache by the time the movie was over.

@pratik No not alone. Scrouge reddit and this is the #1 issue about most Bollywood movies. Audio is optimized for single screen / old theaters not the swanky multiplex crowd. Plus generally in India people are deaf, so I am sure they don't hear it as loud as we do. The volume at which my fam watches TV each night itself gives me a headache, movie theater would be even worse.

@supremus I can understand why the volume is on the higher side in theaters in India. As you said, people in India may prefer a louder volume since the ambient noise in daily life is higher in India. But for the U.S. audiences, they could dial it down, no? I mean louder is not better. My rating for Pathaan was definitely affected by the background score (apart from the bad dialogue for otherwise good stunts) especially since it was an action movie.

@pratik @supremus in the music world, a good producer used to deliver multiple mixes for different channels .. mainly around the radio mix, where radios don’t pick up the high and low frequencies that a rocking hiFi would … these days the mixes are Stereo, Dolby, Atmos (with the various x.y.z variations) … I agree, in film (not just Bollywood .. in which I have zero to add (though RRR remains on my ‘to watch’ list … once I overcome the idea of THREE HOURS!) they rarely put as much effort into the sound .. and it isn’t just Bollywood.

Sideline … we get exposed to zoom interviews on tv and podcasts a lot in these modern times. Ever noticed that if the person is out of the film industry, more often than not the sound sucks … echoey environments, bad video positioning, no headphones .. much less microphones. It’s clear that ‘the pros’ aren’t thinking .. which explains the problem you highlight.

And don’t get me started on ‘saturating’ the sound.

@JohnPhilpin @supremus You must see RRR, even if it's at home on Netflix (available in the U.S.), but at least it doesn't pretend to be too serious. It is deliberately fantastical, like Shaolin Soccer

@cinemapaithiyam @supremus I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of it, and I could hear it crystal clear in the hallway with the door closed.

@pratik ok … sold. It was always only going to be on Netflix for this household … but will move it up the list. Currently on a roll with finally finishing the Breaking Bad series which I always liked, but somehow stopped at the end of the second series.