Hyderabad: The Telangana government will no longer allow any benefit or special premiere shows of movies, with cinematography ninister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy declaring that it was time to put an end to this practice.
The minister’s comment comes in the wake of the death of a woman at a special ‘benefit’ show of the movie on Wednesday night at Sandhya theatre in Hyderabad, and the hospitalisation of her eight-year-old son, who is in a critical condition and continues to battle for his life in a hospital.
The minister questioned the wisdom of Allu Arjun, lead actor in ‘Pushpa 2’ to visit the theatre for the special benefit show screening, fully knowing well that there would be a huge crowd that could easily turn unruly.
Expressing anguish at the death of the woman and the critical injuries suffered by her son, Venkat Reddy said the entire issue of special shows, higher ticket prices will be discussed by the government in detail, and decisions will be taken in public interest.
The government had, on November 29, issued the order permitting ‘Pushpa 2’ producers to organise special screenings, charge higher ticket prices saying they are permitted to screen a “benefit show at 9.30 pm onwards” on Wednesday “with a hike in the rate of Rs 800 for this show only.” It had also permitted higher ticket prices for the rest of the shows across the state till December 23.
Meanwhile, it emerged that this Wednesday’s 9.30 pm show at Sandhya theatre was not really a ‘benefit’ show in that sense. A representative associated with Maitri, the ‘Pushpa 2’ production house, said the special show had higher ticket prices and the returns were expected to be shared between the exhibitors who had the special screenings, the producers, as well as the government which gets an increased revenue in the form of higher GST returns.
Movie tickets attract a GST of 28 per cent, which means for a Rs 100 ticket, the state and Central governments receive `s 14 each on every ticket. Higher the price, higher the GST share for the governments.
Typically, all such special screenings are called ‘paid premieres’ with everyone involved clear about raking in extra cash from higher priced ticket sales. Incidentally, when the movie ‘Kalki’ was given similar permissions for special shows and allowed to charge higher prices, the then government order did not call it a benefit show.
