The government will pilot a legislation in the next Assembly session for bridling the unhealthy practices in the cinema industry and constitute a cinema regulatory authority with quasi-judicial powers, Culture Minister A.K. Balan has said.
Mr.Balan and Ports Minister Kadannapally Ramachandran told reporters here on Monday that the government was planning to take steps much beyond what had been mentioned in the Adoor Gopalakrishnan Committee report on the reforms in the cinema industry.
The government would construct 100 theatres in rural areas. Work for a permanent venue for the International Film Festival of Kerala here, a film city, and film archives had begun. Steps for implementing e-ticketing in theatres were in the final phase, they said.
The pension for indigent artists had been raised from ₹750 to ₹1,500 and it would be revised again. The pension of subscribers to the Cultural Activists Welfare Fund Board too had been revised from ₹1,000 to ₹3,000.
The Culture Department had organised a slew of programmes during the past one year and it had drawn huge public support too.
A series of cultural exchange programmes were also in the offing.
The Kerala and Delhi governments were jointly organising a Cultural Heritage Fest in Delhi from October 14 to 6. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Delhi Chief Minister Aravind Kejriwal would inaugurate the festival at Connaught Place. Mr.Balan would preside.