Till now, we have been hearing the sob stories of small-time film-makers who claimed that all the theatres are in the vice-like grip of just four biggies and that they are ruling the roost. While they are raking in moolah, they are making smalltime film producers starve. But, the ground reality seems to be different. Those who took film theatres on lease are actually passing through troubled times.
Consider this, the theatres belonging to Suresh Babu-V Prasad combine in Ceded area have been reduced to one fourth of the original number in just two years. They are now trying to reduce the number further. They want to keep only those theatres that are remunerative and want to leave others. The fact is feeding the theatres for six to seven months during the lean season is becoming an increasingly difficult talk. Pre-Sankranthi season was a lean period. Now March and April are again lean season. These are loss making seasons.
In Nizam there is another problem. The Telangana Government has removed the parking fees. This is a big loss for the theatres. Now, the theatres in Telangana are even thinking in terms of closing the theatres in the month of March to tide over the crisis. In AP, already shows are being cancelled due to lack of collections. But, Andhra is not thinking in terms of closing the theatres temporarily.
