'Multiethnic multiplex' in Fremont to close

Date: Sunday, January 05, 2003 1:05 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Shiraz Jivani, owner of a huge cinemaplex that caters to H-1Bs complained
that his business is down by 50%. According to Jivani his customers are all
losing their jobs and moving back to Asia. No questions were ever raised
about the possibility that his customers are going to other movie theaters
instead of his. Perhaps H-1Bs like Hollywood better than Bollywood!

Jivani also runs a bodyshop that he calls a "side business". He used to own
over 100 H-1Bs but that number has dropped to nine. The journalist that
wrote this story didn't tell us where his H-1Bs went. Perhaps they got green
cards or they decided to go to another bodyshop that wasn't ripping them off
as bad.

Journalists continue to ignore the obvious questions that should be asked
before printing articles that purport to report facts.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/4853160.htm

Posted on Wed, Jan. 01, 2003

Multiethnic multiplex in Fremont will close
SOUR ECONOMY BLAMED FOR SAGGING ATTENDANCE
By Matthai Chakko Kuruvila and T.T. Nhu
Mercury News

It was a grand plan. Build a chain of multiethnic multiplexes, catering to
the burgeoning diversity of Silicon Valley and beyond.

But today, Shiraz Jivani's plan takes one step backward. The owner of the
Naz8 Cinema is closing what is believed to be the first multiethnic
multiplex in the country -- a theater fueled and ultimately snuffed by the
fortunes of the H-1B visa program that brought thousands of South Asian
high-tech workers who reshaped Silicon Valley.

Faced with dwindling attendance, Jivani, who owns two Naz8 Cinemas in
Fremont, said Tuesday he will close the eight-screen theater at the Fremont
Hub Shopping Center, meaning Bay Area Bollywood film buffs suddenly,
surprisingly, find themselves with 13 instead of 21 screens dedicated to
their films.

Jivani's theaters feature movies from China, Iran, Afghanistan, the
Philippines and other countries, but most are from Bollywood, the Mumbai,
India-based film industry that is the world's largest, and the customers are
predominantly Indo-American.

The films -- heavy on romance, action and melodrama -- are widely popular,
especially among South Asian immigrants. Much like American television,
Bollywood movies provide a vehicle for shaping culture.

Moviegoers at the Fremont Hub Naz8 were unaware that today would be the
theater's last.

``Are you serious? Don't freak me out!'' exclaimed Deepti Mistry, 23, a
nurse from Modesto who had come to the movies Tuesday with more than 25
members of her family.

Jivani said attendance at the Naz8 was spurred by the recent wave of mostly
South Asian H-1B high-tech workers. But the sour economy has forced
unemployed visa holders to return to South Asia.

Jivani estimates that attendance -- which had once ranged from 8,000 to
10,000 per week -- has plummeted 50 percent at the theater in the Fremont
Hub Shopping Center.

``Like how a balloon looks after all the air has gone out,'' is how Jivani,
speaking in Urdu, described his business.

``A lot of H-1Bs have gone back, as you know,'' he said. ``They were more
homesick than the people who were living here. That economy hurt us bad.''

Jivani would know. His side business involves contracting out H-1B workers,
a process sometimes criticized as a ``body shop.'' During the economy's
peak, Jivani had 104 H-1B workers who he contracted out. Now he's down to
nine.

What also hurt, he said, is that some Indian grocers rent pirated DVDs of
the same films he shows.

The closing now gives Bay Area audiences 13 screens for films from
Bollywood. India Movie Center 6, in Sunnyvale, is still running. And the
Gateway Plaza Naz8 has seven screens.

About 143,000 Indo-Americans live in the Bay Area, according to the 2000
census, more than half in Fremont and Santa Clara County.

``We hardly ever visit our relatives, we just go to the movies,'' said
Kavita Mistry, 19, a student at Modesto Junior College. Sometimes, as many
as 35 members of the Mistry clan come from Modesto to go to the Naz cinema.

Zeel Hussein, 22, brought his wife Fiza, 19, and her two sisters, Zafia, 16,
and Zairin, 12, from Hayward to see ``Sathiya.'' They have been coming to
the Naz ever since they moved to the area three years ago.

``We like to go to Indian movies,'' Fiza said, ``because you can talk, eat
and have a good time.''

Jivani, who operates a multiethnic multiplex in Los Angeles, recently opened
another Naz8 in Dallas. But he has slowed down his plans to build more
theaters in cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Cupertino.

But he has hope. The second Naz8 he opened in the Gateway Plaza shopping
center in Fremont this year, across the street from the city's BART station,
is doing better than the one he is closing.

Jivani said he reached a mutual agreement with the owner of the Hub property
to get out of his lease, a deal made easier because the Hub's owners believe
the successful new Target store makes the site valuable for a national
retailer.

``Mutually, amicably, we resolved it with the landlord,'' Jivani said.
``They needed the space and we came to mutual agreement on some terms.''

Contact Matthai Chakko Kuruvila at mkuruvila@sjmercury.com or (510)
790-7316.

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