Minister for Law, Culture and Parliamentary Affairs A.K. Balan has said that the State government is planning to bring in a law to promote and safeguard the Malayalam film industry.
At a press meet here on Monday, the Minister said a meeting of stakeholders would be held in the State capital in this regard on January 25. The proposed law would be worked out based on the recommendations of an expert committee, headed by film-maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, which had submitted a report to the government two years ago. The committee had been set up to study the problems faced by the Malayalam film industry and provide suggestions to revamp the sector.
Enacting a law had become imperative in the wake of a rift between exhibitors and producers in the State that had led to withdrawal of all Malayalam movies from A class cinemas during the Christmas-New Year season, he said.
Mr. Balan said the law would come with an online ticketing system to plug the loopholes that reduced the revenue from entertainment tax. “Collection reports from cinema halls are usually manipulated. They maintain at least three types of accounts, an accurate one for themselves, second one for the producers, and the third for the government. But not all cinema owners are involved in this manipulation,” he added.
The Minister said a section of cinema halls in the State faced crisis. But State-owned 14 cinema halls had made a profit of ₹4.75 crore last year, he said.
State-owned cinemas
Mr. Balan said the government had planned to revive cinemas across the State. Plans are afoot to set up 100 government cinema halls in rural, semi-rural and urban areas. A sum of ₹100 crore would be sourced from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board, a special purpose vehicle formed to mobilise funds for infrastructure development. The project would be envisaged by the Kerala State Film Development Corporation. “The government would start with 25 movie halls next year. Land has been made available through legislators at local bodies,” he said.
Dwindling numbers
The government is also planning wide release of new movies across the State. A reason cited for cinemas getting wiped out from villages was that new films were not screened during their release period. The State used to have 1,200 cinema halls, but now the number had dwindled to 500.