No screening of films in five states from today

Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam film industries have shown unity and resolved to down shutters of 5,000-odd theatres across five southern states from March 2. 

"Every filmmaker has suffered in the hands of Digital Service Providers for the last five years and this unity shows the strength of producers, exhibitors and distributors of five states," says Ravi Kottarakara of South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce.

Elaborating further, leading producer and exhibitor Suresh Babu adds "Actually, these monopolistic digital service providers are killing regional cinema. They are charging southern filmmakers more than Hindi and English films, which has to end at all costs. 

They keep collecting



instalments from exhibitors for projectors even after five years, although the cost is recovered. Exorbitant rentals of Rs 28,000 per week per theatre and downloading charges of Rs 11,800 per week even for a small film, has made digital service providers rich and richer.

Enough is enough, is the mood among all the 5,000-odd exhibitors. Let us down shutters and lose, than suffer the exploitation of digital projector providers," he adds. Tamil star Vishal and Tamil film industry believes that "despite earning thousands of crores in the last five years at the expense of producers, exhibitors and distributors, they are in no mood to cut rates and charges and want to fill their pockets forever."