Differential pricing of cinema tickets must: Actor Manchu Mohan Babu

Vishakhapatanam: Veteran actor Manchu Mohan Babu on Sunday broke his silence on the ongoing controversy over the AP government drastically slashing cinema ticket rates.

Though indirectly, he came out in support of differential pricing which the industry is asking. He said that it is difficult for big films to sustain with tickets priced at Rs 30 to Rs 50 and small budget films with ticket prices of Rs 300-Rs 350.

The veteran actor came in for criticism for keeping mum though his son and a close relative of CM Jagan Mohan Reddy was recently elected as president of the Movie Artistes Association.

Mohan Babu spoke on the issue on Twitter after a post by Chiranjeevi: “I do not want to be the industry’s head.”

“The film industry is not the monopoly of anyone. It also doesn’t mean four heroes, four producers, or four distributors. It is the dreams and lives of thousands of artists. We should also work together to explain our problems to the Chief Ministers of both the states,” Mohan Babu said.

The Producers’ Council was not reacting properly to this issue, Mohan Babu said, adding that everyone should work together to request the governments to lift the restrictions on the cinema ticket prices.

“People with different political parties or ideologies are in the film industry. Setting aside the party lines, we should respect Chief Ministers who are elected by the people. This has not happened so far while approaching the governments,” Mohan Babu said while recalling the sops to the film industry by the late Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.