A day before the release of the first big ticket film “Akhanda” starring senior actor Nandamuri Balakrishna on Thursday, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government re-circulated its earlier government order (GO No. 35) in the mainstream and social media circles.
The GO is about the revised cinema ticket rates in various theatres – from single screen non-AC theatres to AC theatres to multiplexes in gram panchayats to nagar panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations.
The ticket prices in these theatres have been fixed ranging from a minimum of Rs 5 in the single screen theatres in gram panchayats to a maximum of Rs 250 in multiplexes in the municipal corporations.
At the same time, state minister for information and public relations Perni Venkatramaiah alias Nani asserted in the state assembly last week that no theatres would be allowed to screen more than four shows a day. The same message was sent to all the theatres on Tuesday.
Though the GO was recirculated with a view to emphasise that the theatres at all levels should follow the prescribed rates, the order was violated on the day one itself when “Akhanda” was released.
Reports from the ground revealed that at many places, the theatres have screened the film in the early hours itself and are going for additional shows till midnight.
What is more, none of them is following the cinema ticket rates fixed by the government and there were instances of tickets being sold at as high as Rs 400 in some places.
But who will take action, when everybody is hand-in-glove with the industry biggies. First of all, some senior official should find time to bring to the notice of chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy that the GO is being violated by the theatres.
And Jagan will not have time to inspect each and every theatre. He will ask the authorities concerned to look into the issue and take appropriate action. But when the implementing authorities, right from revenue authorities to the police, themselves are keeping silent on the blatant violation of the GO, who else will react?
Right from the officials to the film industry, everybody knows the GO is impractical in its implementation, as the rates will not work out for the theatres, because of their huge maintenance costs.
According to a representatives of the theatre managements’ association, they would not be able to recover even electricity charges of the theatres with these rates, let alone paying the share of the distributor and the taxes to the government.
“What do we get with the minimum ticket price of Rs 5 in gram panchayats or for that matter, Rs 10 in towns? We won’t get even a samosa or a cup of tea with this amount. Even a pocket of popcorn costs a minimum of Rs 25 these days,” he asked.