Film producers seek sunset clause on VPF

The deadlock between the Tamil Film Producers Council and digital service providers (DSPs) — Qube Cinemas Technologies and UFO Moviez — remains unresolved as the film producers have demanded a ‘sunset clause’ from the latter.

Meanwhile, the Telugu film industry has accepted a reduced ‘Virtual Print Fee’ [a 18-23% cut] and has announced that it will release movies as per schedule from Friday.

Tamil film producers, however, maintain that they cannot pay the VPF. They also demand a ‘sunset clause’ – a plan to end the VPF altogether. This stalemate is set to continue as Qube has said that it is in no position to make any more concessions. “All we can do is wait and watch. Qube has made an extraordinarily difficult decision to reduce VPF by 18-23 %. We are in no position to do anything more,” said Senthil Kumar, co-founder, Qube Cinemas Technologies Pvt Ltd.

S.R. Prabhu, producer and treasurer, said, “How long do we pay the VPF charges? We have already paid for 12 years now. We cannot be endlessly paying for technology upgrades in theatres. We have demanded a sunset clause from the DSPs to end all VPF charges. We will only pay handling charges: mastering, duplication and delivering charges.”