Chennai: Threatened by double-taxation in GST regime and shutdown of movie shows by the exhibitors, the Tamil film industry went into a huddle on Saturday and came up with a joint appeal from its multiple unions and associations asking the government to drop state taxes on movie tickets.
The Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council under actor Vishal held an emergent meeting in the evening and issued an appeal to the Tamil Film Chamber to defer its decision to suspend movie shows from Monday.
Chamber chief Abirami Ramanathan, who owns the popular Abirami theatre in the city, had announced on Friday that there would be no shows from Monday unless the TN government falls in line with its neighbours in the region—Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala—who have all given up their state levies on cinema tickets—while a Rs 100 ticket in the neighbouring state would post-GST cost Rs 118 in the other states, it would cost Rs 148 in TN as the state government has levied additional 30 per cent local tax on the ticket, he said.
Ramanathan’s announcement sent shock waves across the film industry, which churns out dreams at massive budgets supported by money borrowed at huge interest rates. While a canned film spells doom for the producer, it’s the same fate for the maker of a film that’s released just now and faces the Monday ban.
While Ramanathan may have his good reasons for his Chamber’s decision, all the other film bodies bitterly complained that was done without proper consultations and without considering the serious consequences to those who made films amid much struggle and financial stress.
“We have appealed to the Tamil Film Chamber to defer its decision to suspend shows from Monday and to give us some time to sort out the taxation issue with the state government”, Vishal said after his Producers Council meeting. “Also, it would be nice if all the organisations connected with the film industry sit together to discuss before taking such critical decisions”, he said.
His colleague on the council and actor, Nasser, told DC: “Seven films were released during the last week and they would suffer huge losses if theatres stop their shows from Monday.” He said the Council members would meet CM Palaniswami to get him to drop state taxes on movie tickets so that only the GST would operate.
