Closure Of Film Theatres In AP From June 1 Averted

Vijayawada:There will be no closure of film theatres in Andhra Pradesh from June1, as proposed earlier.

In this regard, Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC) held a meeting with producers, distributors and exhibitors in Hyderabad on Saturday. The meeting decided to form a joint committee with all stakeholders. The committee will soon meet in Visakhapatnam to work out an understanding on the revenue sharing, mainly between the distributors and exhibitors.

There has been a demand that a percentage of the revenue earned per week while screening films in theatres be fixed for sharing between various stakeholders.

TFCC’s former vice president M. Rama Dasu said, “We are expecting that the proposed joint meeting between the producers, distributors and exhibitors will resolve the issue of revenue sharing based on a mutually acceptable percentage system.”

Exhibitors allege that there is no proper system with regard to revenue sharing between the distributors and exhibitors, due to which distributors are having an upper hand, resulting in exhibitors suffering losses.

For instance, for a recent film starring actor Nani released on Thursday, distributors followed the rental system for seven days, On the last day, they opted to part with a percentage.

Rental system means the distributor gives to single screen exhibitors ₹2–4 lakh or above per week for screening the film. This rental will run into crores in multiple theatres. Similarly, percentage means, 55:45 ratio of sharing revenue collected for screening a film in a week between the distributor and exhibitor in multiplex theatres and 75:25 ratio in single screen theatres, provided there is 100 per cent occupancy in the theatres. However, this ratio of percentage varies from time to time.

Exhibitors are, however, asking for fixing the percentage revenue sharing on the lines of mutual benefit between the distributors and exhibitors.

Telugu film industry sources say that unlike the earlier practice of heroes coming up with three to four films in a year, they are nowadays doing only one film in three to four years by collecting a huge amount of remuneration ranging between ₹100–150 crore per film. This puts the heroes in a financially comfortable position, even if they work in a single film in three to four years.

Exhibitors say that huge remuneration being given to top heroes is resulting in escalation in the cost of production of the film. This is resulting in distributors asking more money from exhibitors to screen their films. Moreover, release of films on OTT platforms in just three weeks after their release in theatres, unlike the practice of releasing them after eight months being followed in other states, is causing exhibitors to incur losses, as occupancy in theatres comes down steeply once a film is released on OTT.

Significantly, film distributor Anusri Satyanarayana said, “We are not going to stop screening films from June 1, as further talks are to be held on sharing of revenue. Nobody can stop the screening of upcoming film Hari Hara Veera Mallu, starring actor and Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan of Andhra Pradesh.”