FOR more than two decades, the flickering screens and DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) stacked shelves of Koniks Movies have been a staple for Sigatoka families looking to watch their favourite movies.
Established in 2004, owner Gyanandra Chand and his wife have navigated the highs and lows of their business in a rapidly changing digital world.
“We’ve been running it since 2004. The reason we changed location was because of rent issues. The landowners increased the rent all the time. So we had no other option but to find a cheaper place,” he said. The business was born during the golden era of the DVD.
Mr Chand remembers a time when the demand was so high that personal needs took a backseat.
“Before, we hardly had time to have our lunch. We were so busy because people kept coming in.”
Throughout the years, Koniks Movies maintained a consistent pricing structure, selling single movies for $3 and collections — ranging from 10-in-one to 15-in-one discs — for $5.
At the peak of their success, the shop used six duplicator machines to keep up with the demand from locals and tourists.
“We had six duplicators, that means six by six, seven movies we make in one shot. The whole day, all our machines were running, people were lining up.”
The fruits of their labour provided more than just a livelihood; they funded life-saving medical procedures and higher education for their family.
The business also covered approximately $24,000 in medical costs for his wife over two instances and assisted her brother with a $16,000 surgery.
Mr Chand said the shop funded the first two years of his son’s MBBS degree privately at Umanand Prasad School of Medicine (UPSM) before he secured a scholarship.
Today, his son is a doctor and his daughter serves as an executive director in the hotel industry.
Mr Chand said the rise of online streaming and YouTube had significantly impacted the trade.
“The DVD business is going down, it’s not like before but that’s the reason we’re diversifying, so we’ve got cosmetics, telephone accessories, sunglasses and toys.”
By stocking items such as jewellery from India and accessories from China, Koniks Movies has remained afloat while other famous DVD outlets have shut down.
“If it had been only for the DVDs, we would have been closed a long time ago, so if one side of the business is not doing well, we recover from the other side.”
Despite the shift in the market, Mr Chand said retirement was not yet on the cards for the couple.
“My kids are not interested in this business because they’re doing well and we’ll see how long we go. As long as we are in good health, we’ll keep going because we need money for ourselves as well.”
