Online ticket booking: A big unchecked scam?

Although Telangana State government has issued a G.O. to charge only `1.98 per ticket as online charge some time ago, the greedy exhibitors have reportedly got a stay from the court to fleece viewers with `10 to 37 per ticket.

"Actually, online ticketing is one of the biggest scams going on unchecked in two Telugu states and viewers are forced to buy tickets online with exorbitant charges up to `37 per ticket at times for star-studded movies against government's permissible rate of `1.98 per head.

The remaining `35 is going into the pockets of rich lessees and owners of online sites. In fact, for the first-time owners of this particular online site are giving advances of `15 to 20 lakh per area for procuring a big film in their designated theatre, that itself shows the kind of filthy money they have made in the last few years," says distributor Nagi Reddy.

Another distributor Ajay discloses that this particular online site made money by selling tickets in black as well. "This popular online site claims that the tickets are sold off for the first three days but sell them 5 to 7 times more in the backdoor.

With the kind of money they are minting, this site is giving Rs 10 per each ticket to lessees or exhibitors, like sharing the booty. Apart from hike in ticket rates, these online sites sell 'combo' tickets which includes snacks and charge anywhere around Rs 300 to 400 per head and gullible cinegoers have to cough up," adds distributor Ajay.

Along with multi-plexes in cities, even the audience of 1000-odd single theatres across the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are suffering due to unholy syndicate of exhibitors-black market thugs-local politicians selling tickets of `30 and `100 for `200 and `500 for the first three days, the fleecing of viewers is going on unabated, as police and tax officials look the other way.

Now-a-days, selling tickets in black has become an official business, thanks to lessees who hold control over the 1,000-odd theatres across TS and AP. "It is a peculiar situation in the two Telugu states, where lessees in the guise of exhibitors exploit poor viewers. They conduct ticket auction in the 40-odd districts to loot gullible viewers and fill their large pockets," rues distributor Subramanyam.

To end this exploitation, distributor Kumar urges the two state governments to insist theatres to install newly-launched I Cloud System on projectors to bring transparency to collections and shore up revenues of the government.

"This I Cloud System will record the head count in the theatres and match it with collections presented by the exhibitor to government through Daily Collection Charts. In simple terms, governments can earn roughly `100 to `200 crore based on actual turnout and collections."