Hyderabad: Despite stiff ticket prices, urbanites flock to theatres

Hyderabad: Steep increase of movie ticket prices received mixed response in Telangana. A day after the Government announced introducing the new price structure for film tickets, multiplexes in Hyderabad did not see any negative impact but the single screen-theatres in the municipalities and semi-urban areas saw a fall in the number of people despite Saturday being weekend and holiday. Footfall in all multiplexes in the Greater Hyderabad limits had gone up despite the hike in ticket prices.

Film buffs were busy booking tickets online.

"The increase of Rs 20 per ticket is okay. Earlier we used to pay Rs 180 now we must shell out Rs 200. This increase will not matter much if the film is worth it.

Yes, it would pinch me if the movie was not so good," said a movie buff S Venkatram at Dilsukhnagar multiplex.

Multiplex owners felt relieved from the good response from the visitors to watch films despite the hike in ticket prices. The increased revenue, they said, would help to overcome financial liabilities they were facing following the Covid-19 pandemic. The response they got on Saturday indicates that ticket price is not a major issue for urbanites, a manager of Miraj multiplex said.

But the situation was different in districts particularly for single-screen theatres. The theatres in districts witnessed low footfall on Saturday. Theatre managements said that most of the visitors to the cinema halls are from the lower middleclass. Despite being an extended weekend, the price hike had an adverse impact on the daily collections, they said.

They said the minimum ticket price should not have been hiked during the festive season. Earlier, the minimum ticket price was Rs 25 and now it is Rs 35 which includes GST and other maintenance charges. Families with small income cannot afford to watch films by paying the increased price.

"The threat of closure of single theatres under the impact of growing maintenance charges and also ticket prices are not ruled out. Nearly 100 theatres had shut down and converted theatres as function halls or leased out for commercial purposes," said Y Babu, a film theatre owner from Suryapet.

The theatre managements are keeping their fingers crossed and hope that people may at least throng theatres when big ticket films starring Mahesh Babu, Junior NTR, Ram Charan and Prabhas are released during early 2022.