KOCHI: Movie buffs have nothing much to cheer about this summer with a majority of Mollywood films that were released during the first half of April bombing at the box-office. Adding to their woes is the row between the Film Producers Association and the Film Exhibitors Federation over the ‘hold over’ (assessing the collection on the basis of which theatres will decide to stop showing the movie) issue. As a result, no Malayalam films were released after April 16. The strike had a major impact on theatres in the city, especially since summer vacation is the time theatre owners reap maximum profit.
“If the situation continues we will be forced to close down theatres. Today, only 45 out of 225 seats in the mini theatre in our theatre complex were occupied for the noon show." "The collection is not even enough to pay the electricity charge of a single show. But we have no other choice than continue screening the movie as there are no other releases,” said the manager of a theatre complex in the city. Producers association president G Sureshkumar said that the association is not planning to release new movies until the exhibitors are ready to reach a consensus on the hold over issue.
“At present theatre owners are excluding noon shows while calculating hold over. Our demand is that exhibitors calculate the collection of four shows, including noon shows, while assessing the hold over,” Sureshkumar said. Vijay’s Tamil movie ‘Sura’ that released last week is also getting a cold response. “It seems the strike has affected the mindset of viewers,” said another theatre owner.
Meanwhile, Saju Johny of EVM Group said that theatre owners were not ready to agree to the demands of the producers association because of the huge labour and electricity charges.
“People throng cinema halls to watch only good movies and not everything that come their way. It has to be a bigbudget movie, a movie with a good theme and star cast. Only then people will be lured to theatres,” he said.
Sources close to the producers association said that the tussle might end soon. “Big movies including the Mammootty- Prithviraj starrer ‘Pokkiriraja’, Mohanlal-Sreenivasan team’s ‘Oru Naal Varum’ and Sathyan Anthikkad’s ‘Kadha Thudarunnu’ are expected to hit the screens this week,” sources said.
kochi@expressbuzz.com