It sounds like much ado about nothing, going by the way the Government Order of last week allowing for a hike in cinema ticket prices has been kept in abeyance.
When the GO was issued last week, it led to a furore, what with producers of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (FCC) crying hoarse about being kept out of the process and alleging that only those belonging to the Telangana FCC were kept in the loop. Real though it appeared to be, none of those in the Telugu FCC wished to go on record about it.
After a series of internal meetings, office-bearers of the Telugu FCC including producer D. Suresh Babu, Secretary of the Telugu FCC and Treasurer of the Producers’ Council Kodali Venkateswara Rao called on Minister for Cinematography Talasani Srinivas Yadav and apprised him of the situation. The bone of contention was that cinema being the cheapest form of entertainment, any hike in ticket prices would deprive the common man of the entertainment mode.
Other technical issues included Government allowing for a hike in maintenance charges from ₹ 2 and ₹ 3 per seat per show, to ₹ 7. The producers’ contention was that there was no need for such a proviso to be made available to the exhibitors, when they already had channels of extra revenue through parking lot charges, advertisements on screen and off screen, canteen charges and the like.
The producers were quick to point out that they had no sources of revenue except by selling their product to the distributors. Taking the side of viewers, especially those from the middle and poorer sections of people, they expressed their displeasure at the ticket price hike allowed by the government and over entertainment tax being added to the Goods and Services Tax at the rate of 18 per cent for tickets priced below ₹ 100 and at 28 per cent for tickets priced at over ₹ 100.
Interestingly, the issue of ticket prices has found an echo in the campaign for elections to the Telugu FCC that is scheduled to be held on July 30.
