Cinema theatres closed in protest

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, APRIL 5. `Ugadi', the Telugu New Year Day, was celebrated with the usual festivity all over the State but there was a difference. Missing was the entertainment for generally this is the day where the biggest of the blockbuster films are released.

For the first time, all the cinemas have closed down after the Andhra Pradesh Exhibitors Association decided to strike on Wednesday citing ``lack of a positive response'' from the State Government to their long- pending problems.

``We have been representing our problems to the Government for the past several months and we had also deferred our closure plan expecting some announcements but there has been no response,'' points out Mr. S. P. Jaiswal, owner of the Deepak theatre.

``We had to close the theatres purely for economic reasons because with the present tax system we have to pay the tax whether we get the income or not,'' explains another exhibitor. ``The strike has been successful all over the State. This is not an agitation as we only wish to highlight our problems,'' says Mr. D. Hanumanth Rao, general secretary, A.P. Exhibitors Association.

Film exhibitors, Telugu ones especially, complain of severe drubbings in the form of the prevailing slab rate of entertainment tax, high power tariff, increase in running costs, competition from cable television etc. as the reasons for downing the curtains.

``Except those theatres which have a constant flow of good films and blessed with a good location are able to run the show'' says Mr. S. S. Misra, owner of Sangeet theatre which also shut shop.

Expecting new releases on the festival day as earlier announced many people thronged theatres for the morning shows only to be disappointed with the closure signs outside the theatres. Police, in fact, had to intervene and remove the fans of filmstar Nagarjuna from a theatre at RTC crossroads when they jumped the locked gates wanting to watch the release of their hero's latest film - ``Nuvvu Vastavani''.

However, there were some theatres which were running and they ran to packed shows. Never mind the fare available. The main demands put forth by the exhibitors were elimination of the entertainment tax as was done in Karnataka and Maharashtra or opt for tax based on the tickets sold. They also want reduction in the tax to 5 per cent on Hindi/English films.

``The occupancy rate for the theatres had fallen drastically. With fewer films being produced and more flops, the situation has become unviable totally,'' says Mr. Jaiswal.

Andhra Pradesh is said to have the highest number of theatres in the world - nearly 3,000, and in the twin cities there are more than 100.

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