On various issues, the Andhra Pradesh government led by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy proved how far it can go on the decision it takes. The much-talked-about online movie ticket sales issue is one of the issues which proved it. No matter how hard the bigwigs in the Tollywood film industry tried, the state government decided to stick to its previous decision.
After going through various twists and turns, the issue ended up, with the Andhra Pradesh High Court giving its nod for the government to hand over the responsibility of overseeing the online ticket sales to the Andhra Pradesh State Film Development Corporation(APFDC).
As a significant development, the Andhra Pradesh government issued new guidelines in this row. The guidelines say that the APFDC will act as a nodal agency and take responsibility for the sales. For this, the theatres across the state will have to sign an agreement with the body.
The movie tickets should be sold according to the prices mentioned by the state government. As the tickets will be sold online, every ticket will come with a service charge of 2 percent. Having said that, the government also directed that the facilities should be increased to facilitate online sales. The ticket sales should be started just one week before the release.
Now the question is, whether all the films will be treated equally or if any issues will be created for a few films. It has to be mentioned here that, whenever Pawan Kalyan's film gets released some or the other issues will be created. The recent Bheemla Nayak proved the same.
When Bheemla Nayak was released, authorities were present at the theatres to see that the tickets were sold at the prescribed prices. No special shows were allowed. A few theatres in the state voluntarily shut the establishments saying that they cannot show the film by selling tickets at regular prices.
Other films like Pushpa, and Akhanda did not face such issues. Though the films were not given a free hand, they did not go through problematic situations like Pawan Kalyan's films did. We have to wait and see what happens when Pawan Kalyan's film gets released.
After going through various twists and turns, the issue ended up, with the Andhra Pradesh High Court giving its nod for the government to hand over the responsibility of overseeing the online ticket sales to the Andhra Pradesh State Film Development Corporation(APFDC).
As a significant development, the Andhra Pradesh government issued new guidelines in this row. The guidelines say that the APFDC will act as a nodal agency and take responsibility for the sales. For this, the theatres across the state will have to sign an agreement with the body.
The movie tickets should be sold according to the prices mentioned by the state government. As the tickets will be sold online, every ticket will come with a service charge of 2 percent. Having said that, the government also directed that the facilities should be increased to facilitate online sales. The ticket sales should be started just one week before the release.
Now the question is, whether all the films will be treated equally or if any issues will be created for a few films. It has to be mentioned here that, whenever Pawan Kalyan's film gets released some or the other issues will be created. The recent Bheemla Nayak proved the same.
When Bheemla Nayak was released, authorities were present at the theatres to see that the tickets were sold at the prescribed prices. No special shows were allowed. A few theatres in the state voluntarily shut the establishments saying that they cannot show the film by selling tickets at regular prices.
Other films like Pushpa, and Akhanda did not face such issues. Though the films were not given a free hand, they did not go through problematic situations like Pawan Kalyan's films did. We have to wait and see what happens when Pawan Kalyan's film gets released.