The cinema industry has been at loggerheads over the charges imposed by digital service providers (DSP) like QUBE. Over the past two weeks, the producers’ council and QUBE have gone back and forth discussing many proposals to resolve the issues and avert the strike called for by the former.
The discussions began in Chennai, then moved on to Hyderabad, and finally to Bengaluru. At the recently concluded meet in Bengaluru, QUBE’s final offer has been rejected by the producers’ council, and therefore, they will go on a strike from March 1.
A representative from QUBE says, “We offered a deal for small productions i.e. the films that release in less than 100 screens. But it was rejected. As a second option, we offered to reduce the fee for all films by about 20 per cent. This will benefit them as they claim no film runs for more than two weeks. But they rejected this too, and instead, asked for a consolidated reduction incorporating the number of shows per week,” he says. “As a final option, we offered producers a discount of nine to 10 per cent (UFO offered a discount of 14 to 15 per cent). But they didn’t accept it. Instead, they continued demanding an overall reduction of 25 per cent.”
The QUBE source under condition of anonymity further clarifies, “Already, we are doing this at a very low margin i.e. Rs 2,225 per theatre. If we reduce that further by 25 per cent, we won’t be able to survive. If they go on strike for one day, the overall impact will be 12 to 13 per cent hit, which is almost one and half years of the VPF (Virtual Print Fee) cost. Why create this situation?”
“Also, since the distributors are not part of the strike, English and Hindi films will continue to release as scheduled. We are also open to screening films from any distributors who agree to the proposed reductions.”
SR Prabhu, treasurer of the Tamil Nadu Producers Council, however, paints a different picture. “The reduction of 10 to 12 per cent will not be sufficient. VPF has to be completely removed even if the film is getting released in less than 100 screens. They made an offer to reduce the VPF from 22k to 20k. Even if it was 14k as they claim, it wouldn’t work for us. We want all VPF and weekly rentals to be waived. We have no control over the release of English and Hindi films from March 1, but we believe they won’t be getting released. We also believe that the DSPs will come to an agreement before March 1. We’ll be on indefinite strike till we find a solution.”
Pratani Ramakrishna Goud, Chairman, Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce and Executive Member, Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce, says, “Qube and UFO have reacted in different ways. Qube has budged, and have agreed to our demands to some extent, but UFO is refusing to come to terms with the arrangement. The demands from the South film industry are to completely waive off VPF and the weekly rentals. Another meeting is expected to happen in the next 2-3 days.”
(With inputs from Mani Prabhu and Murali Krishna CH)