Chennai: Some theatre owners complained on Thursday that a few influential colleagues were threatening film producers and distributors to release new films in their cinema halls alone, depriving others of business and profit. In a petition submitted to the Chief Minister’s cell, a group of theatre owners led by R. Sathyaseelan, secretary of the Chennai-Kancheepuram-Tiruvallur Theatre Owners Association and president-in-charge of the association Jayakumar accused the group headed by R. Panneerselvam, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Film Exhibitors Association, of illegal activities in the trade. They said that several illegal activities were going on, including katta panchayat, screening more shows than allowed by government and selling tickets for new films at exorbitant rates.
The Panneerselvam group is threatening distributors and producers to release their films in their theatres alone. They are paying a minimum guarantee amount to the producers and not allowing other theatres to release new films. “Since we are not getting new releases, we are forced to run old movies. Filmgoers throng the theatres which show new movies. Using the situation, the Panneerselvam group is selling tickets at higher rates than the norms, besides showing several shows like midnight shows and early morning shows against government rules”.
Besides, the group is also threatening producers and actors to pay compensation if the film bought with minimum guarantee assurance fails to fetch profits. This happened in the case of Rajini starrer, Linga, they said. However, Panneerselvam denied the allegations. He said that Sathyaseelan had gone to court against the association and had been removed from membership. So he is making false charges against me, he said.
“When people are not coming for even three shows, how can we expect people for midnight and early morning shows? Government rules permit us to run five shows during a film release and we are following this,” he said. Panneerselvam also said he would file a defamation suit against the complainants for making false allegations.
