It is the same story every time a big film releases in Tamil Nadu. The advance booking of actor Ajith Kumar’s Vivegam, releasing in over 700 screens in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, may have been exceptional, but several theatres in and around Chennai — which have not completely computerised their ticketing — have been selling tickets over the counter at exorbitant rates, much above the government-mandated prices.
A well-known producer in the industry said the film is likely to collect ₹50-60 crore in Tamil Nadu alone. “Theatres that don’t sell tickets through their online portal are likely to oversell their tickets for exorbitant prices. If they sell a ticket for ₹300, a single screen theatre, which charges close to ₹100 per ticket, will only pay taxes for ₹100. The rest is unaccounted money,” he said.
A fan, who purchased tickets at a well-known theatre in Koyembedu, said he paid ₹500 over the counter. A few theatres in Ashok Nagar/K.K. Nagar areas were charging ₹300 per ticket.
“They are just giving out tickets with just row, seat number, date and time of the show. The ticket price is not printed at all,” said the fan.
Several stakeholders in the industry said distributors, producers and exhibitors were caught in a vicious web: the stars hike their prices with every hit and the budgets go up. This forces producers to sell the film to distributors at inflated rates, who, in turn, overprice tickets to recover the cost.
Making hay
With absolutely no guarantee on whether a ‘star’ film would survive and make money, another producer says that a big star movie is necessary for the industry. “This is the first big ticket movie post GST and with no clarity on the local body tax theatres, they are making hay with the tickets being sold as high as ₹800 in certain theatres,” the producer said.
A source in the film fraternity, who wished anonymity said that the State government mandated ticket prices were not fair. “So, it happens with the tacit understanding between the distributors and producers. This is exactly why the government must not control ticket prices for movies. The market will correct itself if left free to set pricing.”