A total of 30 cinemas in Dindigul and 22 in Theni districts remained closed on Monday as part of the State-wide strike called by Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners’ and Distributors’ Association. The worst-affected were the theatre workers.
In Dindigul, 30 cinemas including two multiplexes, with a total seating capacity of around 18,000, cancelled all shows.
On an average, each theatre incurred a loss of ₹1.5 to ₹3 lakh a day.
Only 60% to 70% seats were filled during weekdays while it was 85% during weekends. said a theatre owner in Dindigul. At present, none of the cinemas were under the control of theatre owners. Ninety per cent of the theatres had been leased to big companies. Already two old theatres were closed and three others were paralysed, he said.
Theni
In Theni, 22 theatres, with a seating capacity of 15,000 remained closed.
When contacted, Krishna Theatre owner Raghul Kumaresan, said that the average loss per day in the district was ₹10 lakh to ₹15 lakh during weekends and ₹5 to ₹6 lakh during weekdays.
“A day’s loss in my theatre worked out to ₹1 lakh to ₹1.5 lakh,” Mr. Raghul Kumaresan added.
“The government had fixed tariff at ₹5, ₹10, ₹15 for various classes for air-conditioned theatres in 2007. No revision was made till now. We have been paying tax ranging from 10 to 30 per cent based on the location of the theatre like municipalities, town and village panchayats. We welcome GST as it levied only 28% tax. But the State government on June 29, issued a circular, directing us to pay 30% entertainment tax besides 28% GST. Now we have to shell out 58% tax,” he also worried.
“To run a small theatre, we need minimum 10 employees including two operators. It may increase to 15 based on capacity of the cinema. Besides, electricity charges would be around ₹13,000 and wages per operator would work out to ₹8,000 to ₹10,000. How can we run the show in this scenario,” he questioned.
He appealed to the government to bring all theatres in the State under two categories – air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned cinemas, irrespective of locations, to weed out anomalies. Increasing the fare to ₹ 175 or ₹ 200 and introduction of single tax would provide real relief to all, he added.
Virudhunagar
In Virudhunagar district all the 33 cinema theatres remained closed on Monday. The secretary for integrated Madurai and Ramanthapuram districts theatre owners’ association M. Ratnakumar said that the theatres could not be run with a combined tax of 58% on admission fee.
“We are ready to pay Goods and Services Tax. But, only in Tamil Nadu, we have the local administration tax of 30% which we pay to the local administration like Corporations, municipalities and panchayats. If only this tax is removed, running a cinema hall will become profitable," Mr. Ratnakumar said.
At the given tax rate of 58%, the theatre owners would not be able to pay even the electricity bills, he added.
Around 20,000 seats were available in these theatres in Virudhunagar district.
Ramanathapuram
In Ramanathapuram district, all four theatres remained closed.
In Sivaganga all 13 theatres were closed.
