AMARAVATI: Curtains on the movie tickets controversy are likely to be downed shortly as the high-level committee has concluded its deliberations to finalise the movie ticket prices at its meeting on Thursday. The 13-member committee headed by state home secretary M Vijay Kumar is expected to submit its report in a couple of days to the government.
The committee is reported to have decided to recommend increasing the prices by 40-60 per cent from the slabs fixed in the past. The prices would be fixed based on the infrastructure available in the theatre instead of city status. Sources said the government has already advised the committee to take the requests and representations submitted by the film industry biggies into consideration for fixation of the ticket prices. It will be, however, interesting to see whether the government would issue a GO with revised rates before the release of Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan-starred 'Bhimla Nayak' which is slated to be released on February 25.
"The committee has decided to recommend prices reasonably good for all the stakeholders including movie goers, exhibitors and producers. The state government will take the final call," movie tickets committee member and film exhibitor Mutyala Ramdass told the media after the meeting at the state secretariat. He said all the issues raised by the industry were discussed at the meeting. He added the committee also discussed hike in movie tickets for high-budget films.
The issue of very low ticket prices in AP has been boiling for the past one year since the government slashed the prices. The film industry, which initially expressed its displeasure at the prices, realised the gravity of the issue and started making attempts to buy peace with the state government. With the state government sticking to its stance and launching the crackdown on the violators, many theatres downed their shutters.
Taking the seriousness of the issue, mega star Chiranjeevi swung into scene and held discussions with chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. He subsequently brought a delegation comprising Prabhas, Mahesh Babu and directors Rajamouli, and Koratala Siva whose movies are scheduled to be released next month, to the chief minister and prevailed upon him to increase the movie ticket prices.
Jagan, while promising to look into all the issues raised by industry captains, had requested them to relocate to AP for shooting of films and construction of studios. CM had also promised to allow screening of fifth show during festival season. Industry representatives expressed happiness for chief minister taking positive decisions on the issues concerning the industry.
