Government reduces cinema ticket rates

Conceding the demand of the Tamil Nadu Film Producers Guild and other associations, the Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, has announced the slashing of the cinema ticket rates in the State with effect from January 1, 2007.

This is yet another sop for the film industry after the DMK was returned to power earlier this year.

The new admission rates fixed by the Government are:

A/c theatres in cities: Minimum Rs. 10 and Maximum Rest. 50.

Non-a/c theatres in cities: Min. Rs 7 and Max. 30.

A/c theatres in municipal areas: Min. Rs 5 and Max. Rs.40

Non a/c theatres in municipal areas: Min. Rs.4 and Max. Rs..30.

A/c theatres in town panchayats: Min. Rs.5 and Max. Rs.25.

Non a/c theatres in town panchayats : Min. Rs.4 and Max. Rs.20.

A/c theatres in village panchayats: Min. Rs 5 and Max. Rs.15.

Non a/c theatres in village panchayats: Min. Rs 4 and Max. Rs.10.

The Chief Minister has also announced that theatres would not be permitted to hike admission rates to any level for the first two weeks after the release of a new movie.

The flip side is that the fixing of admission rates by the government will affect the most upmarket airconditioned multiplexes in cities and they cannot charge more than Rs 50 a ticket.

A spokesperson for a popular Chennai multiplex said the hard hit would be the upmarket city multiplexes. "We have been jolted by this sudden announcement. We will have to consult other theatre owners and decide on our next move," he said.

According to a section of the industry, the new admission rates could hit the big producers engaging mega stars in multi-crore productions such as Rajinikanth-starrer "Sivaji". If the theatre collections fall, it might be difficult for the producers to pay hefty fees to superstars.

Theatres in small cities like Salem and Tirunelveli, where the existing maximum admission rate is Rs.40 in airconditioned theatres may not hike it to Rest. 50 as per the new tariff announced by the Chief Minister . Hiking the admission rates would keep people off theatres with DVDs flooding the market, one source said.

The new tariff was announced by Mr. Karunanidhi on Dec.20 following representations from , besides the Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council, the South Indian Film Chambers of Commerce, Chennai Corporation Film Theatre Owners Association and the Distributors Association.

A delegation of the film industry called on the Chief Minister and presented him with a copy of their resolution of demands adopted at a joint meeting of the film bodies recently.

Producers Council president Rama Narayanan led the delegation and briefed mediapersons after the meeting with the Chief Minister.