The confrontation between the Telugu film industry and the Andhra Pradesh government over cinema ticket pricces, which triggered a big row a few months ago over, has not yet subsided.
The confrontation has taken a different turn with the Jagan Mohan Reddy government insisting on sale of cinema tickets only through an online platform run by the AP State Film, Television and Theatre Development Corporation.
While the Tollywood has expressed no objection to sale of tickets through online platform per se, what is angering the industry is the condition that the government would pay the theatres’ share to the exhibitors only after deducting the tax and also surcharge on the collections.
The government has ordered that the exhibitors would have to sign an agreement with the APSFTTDC to that effect. This is not being taken kindly by the film exhibitors. The government has warned that if they fail to sign the agreement, it would cancel their licences.
The exhibitors are arguing that if a film is not released for any reason, days after selling the tickets in advance, the audiences would question the theatre not the government.
“Who is answerable to the audiences? Theatres or the government?” they are asking.
The exhibitors are also questioning the collection fo 2 percent surcharge on the ticket prices. Similarly, they are opposing the condition that they would settle any dispute with the government only in the arbitration centre at Amaravati.
At the same time, they also want clarity on what would happen to the contractors they had signed with other online platforms like PayTM and Bookmyshow.com.
“We cannot break the agreement with these online platforms and if we do, we need to pay hefty compensation to the same,” an exhibitor said.
The stalemate on online cinema ticketing thus continues.
