Theatre strike called off in AP, Telangana

The indefinite strike organised by the Telugu film Joint Action Committee (JAC) was called off on Wednesday. Reportedly, the JAC has arrived at a truce with the Digital Service Providers (DSPs), including Qube, UFO, PXD and K Sera Sera, and has decided to resume the screening of regional films from Thursday. Some theatres will open from Friday with the release of the Vijay Deverakonda-starrer Ye Mantram Vesave in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

"The issues have been sorted out and the strike has been called off in the Telugu States. The screening of films will resume from Thursday. However, some theatres will resume their operations on Friday with the screening of new releases,” said D Suresh Babu, Convener of the JAC.

The veteran producer expressed happiness over the agreement reached between both the parties over VPF (Virtual Print Fee) charges. “We are really happy with the rate revision. On an average, the DSPs have agreed to reduce the charges by 19-21 percent. However, for some films, it may go up to 22 percent. The flat rate which was earlier capped at Rs 22,500 has been reduced to Rs 20,000. We have categorised digital cinema rate into several slots depending on their run on a full, weekly and slide basis. The tariff will vary for big films, small films and also for the rerun of old films. These rates will be effective from April 1 owing to the accounting practices of the DSPs. Within one or two weeks, we will finalise the rate card. We are also pushing for certain other things, the details of which we will share soon.”

Suresh Babu added that the DSPs had also agreed to their demands of confining on-screen advertising to 10 minutes and to screening of two trailers with the main film without charging extra money.

Senthil, co-founder of Qube said, “We had really struggled to meet the demands of the industry. In the end, it helps everybody. We are happy that the strike has been called off. We have to work on some modalities, and decide which trailers have to be played so that every producer will get an equal chance to promote their films. The other details will be divulged once we arrive at a conclusion.”

Meanwhile, Kiran from Sree Mayuri 70MM, RTC X Roads is overjoyed to resume the operations. “Our management is really excited to start bookings from Thursday. We are happy that the strike has ended amicably.”