TN producers demand share from theatre owners on online booking collections

The status of standalone cinema theatres and multiplexes is still under lockdown in Tamil Nadu, like everywhere else in India. Yet, the film producers of Chennai have decided to fire their first salvo and raise the issue of revenue sharing with the exhibitors. Already, the latter is miffed that the State government has not heeded their continuing demands to open theatres and multiplexes.

This is despite, the theatre owners assuring the government of regulating crowd entry and maintaining necessary protocols to ensure safe viewing and control the spread of the coronavirus, which is still at bothersome levels in Tamil Nadu.

In a letter to the exhibitors, the producers have clearly stated that they expect that online booking collections should be split between the two of them. This is, when the exhibitors are looking forward to screening new films from the forthcoming festival season, which is when they are likely to resume business.

The producers have also demanded that the charges to be paid to the digital screening technology companies like Qube and UFO also should be waived from their side. A share of the advertisement revenue screened during the running of the films also should be paid to them, they demand. It has also been stated that they may be compelled to refuse releases of new films if these issues are not considered, reports Dina Thanthi.