Bowing to artistes’ demands, the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) is set to reduce the rentals of the Town Hall.
Following opposition by artistes, the corporation has temporarily put on hold the move to introduce the online booking facility of the hall.
At a meeting called by Mayor Kavita Sanil, the artistes said that deposits for cultural programmes were too high.
In addition, the civic body ought to reduce the rentals for both ticket and non-ticket programmes.
The Mayor said that an agenda of revised rentals would be placed in this month’s meeting of the council for its approval.
Many objected to the online booking facility stating that artistes who were not familiar with information technology would not be able to do it.
In addition, there were chances of only some artistes using the facility depriving others the chances of presenting programmes. It would also give scope for “intervention of some agents” only to book programmes for artistes.
Artistes pointed out that there were technical issues relating to the sound and lighting system in the hall. It was so after the hall was renovated with push back seats, air-conditioned facility and expanding the area of the stage.
They said that the spotlights on the stage were not rotating. Hence it was not possible to focus on the facial expression of artistes especially during Bharatanatyam and other classical dance performances.
The artistes said that there should be separate power cables for sound and audio systems. The ventilation facility in the green rooms was not enough.
They said that preference while booking the hall should be given to cultural programmes and not marriages. After the renovation of the hall the number of seats have come down to 888 from 1,008 earlier.
The Mayor said that she would form a committee, comprising artistes and representatives of the corporation, within two days on solving the issues.