Theatre owners yet to recover losses incurred during strike

With actors, producers and FEFSI workers getting back to work after the 48-day strike, the longest standoff in the industry in two decades, theatre owners aren’t a happy lot. The three Tamil movies that released in the two weeks post the strike, have not been able to recover the losses incurred by theatre owners during the shutdown. 

“Though we are happy that the industry is back to normal, Mercury, Diya and Pakka haven’t fared too well at the box-office. There is a footfall of about 90 per cent in the theatres because of the content of these films. Avengers somehow has managed to put a smile on our faces. We are all awaiting a huge release, which will help us come out of this slump,” said Tiruppur Subramaniam. 

With no big releases in the offing, Kathiresan, secretary of the Producers’ Council said that there will be no regulations made in the release date. “These movies have been waiting to see the light of the day for a long time. We have been working on the release schedules and will provide the producers and distributors with some clarity this week. 

It will take a while for things to fall in place,” Kathiresan added. Though FEFSI office bearers agreed that they are facing losses, they said that they have achieved what they wanted and it is a good move in the long run. “FEFSI and its workers have incurred a loss of Rs 50 crore because of this strike. On an average we make Rs 1 crore a day. We have over 20,000 employees out of which 10,000 people work every day. However, this will help us in a long run. Earlier, TFPC were against FEFSI but now we have arrived at an amicable solution and things are smooth. I can ensure that the industry will be on track for the next 50 years,” said A Shanmugam, the Secretary of FEFSI.