Rajahmundry: To the dismay of cinegoers, they frequently find that their favourite films have exorbitant ticket prices, which put them out of reach of repeat viewing. It has become a common practice among film distributors to shoot up the prices of movie tickets outrageously while releasing blockbuster films like Spyder, starring Mahesh Babu and Jai Lava Kusa of Jr NTR, to the extent of pricing them at Rs 300 to Rs 400 and above per ticket to rake in quick bucks in a short period.
Though the normal price of a movie ticket in a film theatre is pegged at Rs 100 to Rs 120, the distributors are elevating the price by 100 per cent to 200 per cent and more, based on the craze for the film among viewers.
Mahesh Babu
Distributors justify this by saying that they are purchasing the film by paying more money and want to get back their investment before another popular film hits theatres. For instance, a film starring actor Mahesh Babu used to be purchased by the distributors by paying Rs 3 crore earlier and now with more demand, they are paying a whopping Rs 5 crore!
Also, duration makes a difference. The latest films are being screened in theatres only for a short period, unlike the earlier days of screening them for long periods, like 100 days or more. Silver and golden jubilees are a thing of the past. The film personalities are no longer interested in such records.
Though the state government had issued a GO earlier for the benefit of film goers, imposing curbs on raising the price of movie tickets at the whims and fancies of the film distributors; the distributors are taking advantage of the lacunae in the GO and approaching the Hyderabad High Court seeking permission to hike the price of a movie ticket to Rs 300 or above during the release of a popular film for a short period of one week. Accordingly, the High Court is giving permission.
In case the high expectations of the distributors are shattered if the film turns out to be a flop on the first day itself, they will sell the tickets at regular prices, even though they have permission from the court to sell at higher pricse for a week.
The Andhra Pradesh State Film, Television and Theatre Development Corpor-ation chairman Ambica Krishna said, “We are working out modalities to fix a slab on price movie tickets to make them more affordable to the majority of common filmgoers. We are going to pursue proceedings with the state government to issue a GO accordingly.”
