Tamil film producers, theatres owners at loggerheads over releasing new films and reopening screens

Earlier today, filmmaker Bharathiraja, who heads the Tamil Film Active Producers Association, announced that there will be no new Tamil releases until the VPF charges demanded by the digital service providers like Qube are taken care of by the theatre owners.

In the press release, he has mentioned that all the producers are forced to take this decision as the service providers didn't heed to the five requests raised by the TFAPA. He also clarified that the producers are willing to pay only the one-time charge, which includes mastering, cloning, and delivering. 

Reacting to Bharathiraja's request, Tiruppur Subramaniam, the president of the Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association, told us, "We have no other go but to keep the theatres shut if producers are going to be at loggerheads with us." He also added that theatre owners are willing to have a discussion with the producers only after six months,  "Until then producers must stick to the status quo for theatres to function. We have formally communicated this to them. But they haven't acknowledged it yet. The audience will get a clarity on the status of the new Tamil film releases and reopening of theatres positively around Friday, if the producers get back to us soon."

Theatres in Tamil Nadu were infinitely shut on 16th March due to the lockdown that was imposed because of the Coronavirus pandemic outbreak. After seven months of shut down, the state government recently announced the relaxation to reopen theatres on 10th November. This announcement has lead to the state of confusion between the theatre owners and producers over the VPF charges.