The Government of Andhra Pradesh recent movies on curbing ticket price is appreciable from the point of view of cinema viewers but why is the government involved in a free market industry is not understandable. Across Andhra, farmers markets are available, but there are hardly any farmers in many of these farmers markets. Many shops are owned by a few and the people selling the vegetables are all employees of the few. They buy wholesale from farmers and grade them. The best ones are sent to the private markets to sell for half price. Can the government mandate uniform vegetable prices across the state?
The same grocery is available for different rates across supermarkets, retail and online markets. Can the government provide a uniform rate for consumers? If it cannot interfere in those markets since they are determined by market forces, why interfere in the movie industry is beyond comprehension. The government does not understand the troubles faced by the movie industry. They already have to deal with huge revenue expectations of the actors who keep increasing their fee with every success they achieve. The sum total of production expenses has actors fees as a major expense of the entire movie process. This cannot be brought down anytime. The government should also motivate small movie producers by creating a fund for them to direct movies. The government should explore ways to make independent movies more popular.
Today, on the day of release, the movie is being released by online torrent sites. It is hard for producers to curb them. Within a week, most of the online addicts have already seen the movie. Those who have not seen the movie will wait for 3 weeks to watch it on OTT. Cinemagoers have reduced overall since lockdown is a universal trend. Movie Makers make more money from selling to OTT companies than from Box Office since any strong movie is not running for more than a few weeks in the Box Office these days. If movie distributors want to make a few extra bucks by quoting high prices and there are people willing to watch the movie at that price, why is the government concerned about them and the benefit shows.
We firmly believe that the government should collect GST on every movie ticket and let the market forces determine the price. The higher they place the movie ticket price, the more the income that comes to the government. If the government really wants to do something for the consumers, it should do something regarding the abnormally high prices of food and beverages in theatres. Noone is burning a hole buying a ticket but the cost of food and beverages burns hole in middle class people's family pockets. Many courts have passed judgements but corrupt officials have only utilized these judgements to make more money through bribes. The prices remain astronomically high in movie theatres and it is a known fact that theatres make all their money through food rather than the ticket price.
So the government should focus on reducing the food prices and in order that movie theatres do not escape paying GST, should opt for the online ticketing through mobile app which they have already worked on. This way, the government will know how much revenue the theatres are collecting and make a GST collection on every movie shown. This transparency will embolden the government to provide concessions and encourage the movie industry. Currently, by bribing corrupt officials, theatres run 5-6 shows sometimes and that benefit show revenue is not captured in GST filings.
It is again only mass heroes which make the masses come back to theatres as seen in some southern cinemas which made people rush back to the theatres. Also, in Andhra Pradesh, entertainment options on weekends are limited and hence going to the movies has become a default option on weekends. Weekend Tourism/ Adventure Tourism can divert people but many of them need to start early. Business people who work for six days a week late into the night prefer to sleep late on weekends and get up early on weekends, order breakfast, eat outside, watch a movie and again eat outside and come back home. This preferred mode has become the default trend for lakhs and hence people keep coming to theatres even if no big hero movie has come. But this has changed since Covid lockdowns and OTT has come. If a person today is coming to the Box Office despite the movie being available online, it is because he wants to see it on the big screen or he does not like watching it on the small screen. For such people, pricing honestly does not matter. They will watch the movie whatever the price. It is not even about caste affinity or star affinity. It is about Timepass on a weekend.
