Coming shortly: off-screen action

Producers want movie halls to follow revenue sharing model, threaten to block all movies from January 1 if they don't

Coming shortly: off-screen action

Producers want movie halls to follow revenue sharing model, threaten to block all movies from January 1 if they don't

Kannada movie producers are on a warpath against exhibitors.

They are demanding that cinema halls work like in other states, where they share revenue. In Bangalore, cinema halls take rent from producers.

"Rents are scary. We pay nearly half of our total production cost as rent to the halls," said Anaji Nagaraj, producer of a recent medium budget film, Sugreeva.

The system is different in the neighbouring states, where they share a percentage of the box office collections with the producers, Nagaraj told MiD DAY.u00a0u00a0

Distributors will be present at the meeting.

Only the Karnataka film industry is following the rent system.

The Kannada industry is pitted against the richer Tamil, Telugu and Hindi industries.

"We are losing more than Rs 500 crore every year because of unfair competition from languages films," said director S V Rajendra Singh Babu.

B Suresh, who acts in TV serials and makes arthouse films, said, "We should make good films before going making such demands."

But he supports the demand for the percentage system.

"Distributors blindly pay more money to movies in other languages," said Suresh. "This will at least force them to take a look at what we are doing."

The demand is getting support from some distributors. "This is not a bad idea," said K C N Kumar, distributor of some of the biggest Kannada hits.

The Other Side
But movie hall owners have their own story to tell.

"Every state has its own rules," said the owner of a hall in Majestic who requested anonymity. "And this is no time to raise this demand."

He said filmmakers had no knowledge of their work, which is why a hundred Kannada movies had flopped in a row.

"If a film gets good collections, the percentage system will work, otherwise both will suffer," he said.

Chandrashekhar of Veeresh cinema said this was not a new demand. "If there is mutual understanding, it will work. They have to make good films to ensure good collection."

He said Friday's meeting would provide more clarity both for producers and exhibitors.

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