Cinema ticket pricing will vary according to movies, says Association

Tamil Nadu Film Exhibitors Association president Abirami Ramanathan said, "we will not kill ourselves by immediately fixing the ticket rate uniformly at Rs 150 for all films."

A day after the tussle between the film industry and the government over the issue of entertainment tax was resolved, he said, "we need people to watch movies, we will fix ticket prices according to the affordability of the people."

With government showing the green light to dynamic pricing with an upper threshold, cinema theatres have the flexibility to fix rates according to the star and film value but not exceeding the maximum cap, he said.

"For small budget movies the prices could be now lowered and for big films, ticket rates may be increased," he said, adding that cinema halls now had the option to vary prices according to the demand.

The Tamil Nadu government had yesterday cut local body entertainment tax to eight from 10 per cent after talks with representatives of the film fraternity, including producers, theatre owners and distributors.

The government had also recently allowed increase in the ticket prices, which was a long pending demand and also fixed the maximum threshold. However, there will be entertainment tax and GST over and above the maximum prices fixed by the government.

Ramanathan, who is also chief of the Tamil Film Chamber of Commerce, regretted that Tamil Film Producers Council chief Vishal had spoken yesterday as if "ordering" them to stick to MRP (Maximum Retail Prices) while selling packaged food products in movie halls and on parking fee.

Asserting that products would be sold only on MRP, he said film producers and threatre owners are inter-dependent and speaking in an authoritarian fashion was unwarranted.

Tamil Film Producers Council chief Vishal had said that the government has streamlined and now fixed ticket rates in cinema theatres. He had also said that food products could be sold only On MRP.

The ticket prices in airconditioned cinema halls, throughout Tamil Nadu, other than multiplexes will be a minimum of Rs 40 and maximum Rs 100.

In non-airconditioned theatres other than multiplexes,the minimum will be Rs 30 and maximum Rs 80. In multiplex theatres, a minimum of Rs 50 and a maximum of Rs 150 can be charged exclusive of GST. There would be eight per cent entertainment tax for Tamil movies and 20 per cent for movies of all other language movies.