Jagan's firm stand lands film industry in trouble

The firm stand taken by the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in bringing down the ticket prices in film theatres in Andhra Pradesh has landed film distributors and exhibitors in deep trouble.

According to sources, after the controversy over enhancement of ticket prices for Pawan Kalyan-starrer “Vakeel Saab” in Andhra Pradesh which got in a legal wrangle, the Jagan government has taken a firm decision to see that the ticket prices in theatres are brought down.

Sources said the chief minister is of firm view that the film makers, actors and directors are making big money at the cost of ordinary audiences by enhancing the ticket prices in theatres.

According to Jagan, the production cost has gone up because the actors, directors and other technicians are taking remuneration in lakhs and crores.

To offset this huge expenditure, the producers are selling the films to distributors at a heavy price.

“The distributors are recovering money in the first week or two by forcing the exhibitors to enhance the ticket prices. Ultimately, the audiences are forced to cough up high price for viewing a film,” is the argument of Jagan.

So, he is of the view that if the watching a film in theatres is made affordable to the viewers, the production cost will automatically come down as the artistes will be compelled to bring down their remuneration.

With the chief minister taking a firm stand on this, the film distributors and theatre owners are worried as they would be at a huge loss if the ticket prices are slashed. 

The decision doesn’t affect the film makers much, as they have alternative platforms like OTT and selling satellite rights to release their films, if they cannot release in theatres.

Ultimately, the theatre owners are at loss. So, they are refusing to open the theatres in Andhra, as a result of which the distributors who bought the films at high rate are left in the lurch.

This has resulted in a virtual collapse of the system.

If the films are not released in Andhra due to low ticket prices in theatres, the distributors cannot release the films even in Telangana and Karnataka, because 60 per cent of the collections are from only Andhra.

So, the distributors are desperately trying to convince the government and the chief minister. But who will bell the cat?

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