Legislation for Malayalam film industry in the works

‘A’ class theatres in the city had downed their in the ongoing tiff with film producers.

Kerala’s State Minister for Law, Culture and Parliamentary Affairs A.K. Balan has said that the State government is contemplating to bring in a legislation to promote and safeguard the Malayalam film industry.

At a news conference in Kozhikode on Monday, the Minister said that a meeting of stakeholders would be held in the state capital in this regard on January 25. The modalities on the proposed law would be based on the recommendations of an expert committee headed by film-maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan that had submitted a report to the State 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 has become imperative in the wake of the rift between the exhibitors and producers in the State, which had led to the withdrawal of all Malayalam movies from ‘A’ class theatres in the State during the Christmas-New year season.

Mr. Balan said that the proposed law would also give a thought to the online ticketing system that would plug loopholes that caused a dent in the revenue from entertainment tax. “Collection reports from cinema halls are totally manipulated. Theatres maintain at least three types of accounts, an accurate one for themselves, second one for the producers and the third for the government. But I will not say that all theatre owners are doing the manipulation, “ the Minister said.

He said that a section of cinema halls in the State were unable to make profits. But this was not the case for all since the State-owned 14 cinema halls had made a profit of Rs 4.75 crore last year, “ he said.

Mr. Balan also said that the government had planned to revive the cinema talkies across the State. Plans are afoot to set up 100 government cinema halls in rural, semi-rural and urban areas. A sum of Rs. 100 crore would be sourced from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board, a special purpose vehicle formed to mobilise and channel funds for infrastructure development. The project would be envisaged by the Kerala State Film Development Corporation. “Initially the government would be start with 25 theatres next year. Land for the purpose has been made available through legislators at different local bodies.”

The government is also toying with the idea of wide release of new movies across the State. One of the reasons cited for cinema talkies getting wiped out from villages was that new films were not screened during their release period. There were 1,200 theatres in the State, but now the number had dwindled to 500. The control of film exhibitors had resulted in the dilemma of ‘B’ class theatres not getting new films. Now the situation would change with the producers directly linking to the theatre owners, Mr Balan said.