Tollywood Extremely Happy, Except For That

The Telangana government issued orders to reopen theatres and asked the managements to operate strictly in adherence to the Covid-19 guidelines. As promised to the film fraternity during a meeting on Sunday, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao came to the rescue of the Tollywood which had been shut down due to the pandemic and suffered severe losses.

KCR announced waiver of minimum demand charges against power supply for cinema halls from March when the lockdown was imposed till they reopen for screening. The movie theatres including single screen theatres can now run multiple shows and have flexible ticket prices.

For small budget movies upto Rs 10 crore budget, the State GST of nine per cent will be reimbursed. Further, the State government will soon issue ration cards and health cards to about 40,000 film industry workers including junior artistes to help them tide over the ongoing crisis.

Tollywood is extremely happy with KCR’s sops for the industry. But, they still are not happy with one thing. That is 50 percent seating capacity in theatres. It’s unfeasible to reopen theatres with 50% occupancy as it will incur losses to exhibitors, distributors as well as producers.

Only small to medium range films may release in this and next month. In fact, big ticket films will not see theatres until permission is given for 100 % seating capacity. Many films planned for Sankranthi release are likely to get pushed to summer, if there won’t be complete lifting of restrictions on theatres.