With the Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms posing a big threat to the survival of theatres and multiplexes, the Telugu film chamber of commerce and industry has decided to take a call on how to counter this threat.
Top people from the Telugu film industry have called for an emergency meeting at the Film Chamber office on Monday afternoon to discuss the challenges posed by the OTT platforms to the theatre screening and how to balance between the two.
The meeting would be attended by producers, distributors, exhibitors and studio representatives.
Apart from the OTT issue, they would also discuss various other issues including Virtual Print Fee (VPF) charges being paid to the theatres, increased cinema ticket rates, reduction of cinema production cost and remuneration to the artistes etc.
The meeting has been called in the wake of reports that the film producers are contemplating to stall movie shoots from August 1 to devise ways to restructure the industry to ensure its survival.
A film chamber representative said the OTT platforms have become a big challenge, because the audiences have got accustomed to watch the films on these platforms since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, the footfall to the theatres has come down drastically.
Added to this, the abnormal increase in cinema ticket rates in both the states has also become an impediment for the audiences to come to the theatres.
Except for big budget films, the audiences are preferring to watch the movies on OTTs, causing a big loss to the distributors and exhibitors.
“The meeting will finalise a strategy to see that the films are released on OTTs only after a few months after their release in theatres,” source said.
The meeting would also discuss the reduction in production cost of the films, so that there would be no loss to the producers even if their films do not run much in the theatres.
The meeting will also discuss the issues of remuneration to the technicians and junior artistes, who went on a lightning strike a few weeks ago.