'Peddi' Ticket Hike: Producers Withdraw Plea After Telangana HC Refuses Immediate Orders

Hyderabad: A vacation bench of the Telangana High Court on Friday was not inclined to direct the government to take a decision on the proposed increase in ticket prices for the upcoming film ‘Peddi’, starring Ram Charan. With the court`s refusal, the film-makers withdrew their petition.

Production house Mythri Movie Makers had filed the petition seeking directions to the state government and the home department to consider its representations dated May 15 and May 25 requesting for enhancement of ticket prices for the first seven days of the film’s release, scheduled on June 4.

The matter came up for urgent hearing before Justice Suddala Chalapathi Rao during the lunch motion session. M.V. Pratap Kumar, counsel for the petitioner, argued that the company had submitted representations to the authorities and sought protection of its right to request a ticket price revision. He reminded that the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court`s mandate that proposals for ticket price enhancement be placed in the public domain 90 days in advance.

Mahesh Raje, counsel for home department, submitted that several cases relating to movie ticket price hikes were already pending before the High Court and any urgent orders at this stage could create confusion. The government pointed out that there were existing division bench and single bench rulings on the issue, besides pending contempt proceedings linked to earlier ticket price revisions.

The court was not inclined to issue any interim orders in favour of the petitioner at this stage and adjourned the matter to June 6. Subsequently, petitioner’s counsel informed the court that since the film was due for release on June 4, the petition would become infructuous if heard later. He sought permission to withdraw the petition to enable the company to pursue remedies before the appropriate fora. The High Court accepted the request and dismissed the petition as withdrawn.