Today is not only a day for Thalaivar fans to celebrate, but also a chance to boost their prestige by managing to get a ticket for the first day, first show! Yes, FDFS is not just an acronym for people in Tamil Nadu — it’s an experience, an ego exercise, and a privilege!
Though many of you have missed watching Kabali on the very first day, and with online reservations having been sold out for almost a week, here are a few avenues through which you can try to avail tickets. Whether it is looking for movie tickets of your favourite heroes, or finding the right companions for going to movies that suit your taste, there are various platforms to help you out.
Though there are various Facebook pages that exclusively help you buy and sell tickets, Movie Ticket Market, which was started by a Chennai-based youngster Varun Varadarajan, stands out as the most prominent one. Boasting a member count of more than 55,000, MTM lets you sell and buy tickets legally. Says Varun, “I started the group only out of personal need. But, after seeing the group get noticed and become bigger in a short time, I understood more about the ticketing system in our city. If a person wishes to sell his tickets due to various reasons, he doesn’t get a refund from theatres. But, with so many others willing to buy it, I thought it would be good if there is a platform for people who seek tickets and also for people who want to sell them.”
He adds that MTM is working aggressively to curb black tickets. “The group has zero tolerance towards black money. Contrary to common perception, people who sell tickets for exorbitant sums of money are not the only ones at fault. There are many people who post in the group saying that they are willing to purchase a ticket at any cost. We are on the alert for such people — to block them!”
Apart from this, there is also a mobile application called BuySell tickets, which lets you search for movies and look for tickets — which have been put up for re-sale by others. This app also lets you directly chat with the seller, but with the privacy remaining intact. Another Facebook group called Movie Companions serves a different purpose — it serves as a common place for people to find others who share similar movie tastes, so that they can watch them together! Raja Selvam, who ideated the group, tells us, “In many cases you come across people who like only art movies, while all their friends would be fans of commercial cinema. So, I created this group where people can post about a particular movie and its genre, so that if other people were willing to watch it, they could go together,” he says. Being a relatively new group, he recalls the first movie outing experience with the group members — “Recently, we decided to go together for Independence Day: Resurgence. Out of the 10 people who came along with me, seven were total strangers, but I ended up discussing a lot about movies!”
