Sirish Reddy Really Made Sense!

Telangana Exhibitors called for a Pressmeet earlier today and pressed for the need of implementing the Percentage System immediately to keep the Single Screens alive.

They clarified that they are going to screen only those films given in Percentage System which means Producers who are opposing the system should decide.

Peddi is the first big film releasing and obviously, the producer has to decide if he can offer Percentage System or avoid screening the film in theaters that do not agree.

There is a campaign in social media that Sirish Reddy is targeting Mythri because he is no longer making big films.

Gulte.com Journalist Nishant asked about it in the Pressmeet. “Going forward, all the films we make in SVC will be given in Percentage System only. Very soon, we will announce a big movie and we will do it in Percentage System only. You will understand if SVC is making small films or big films,” he said.

It is true Producers are also suffering because of crashing OTT market and audience not turning up to the theaters. And there are issues like increased costs and working days etc. They are not happy too. Making changes to the system will be even more difficult. But Sirish Reddy definitely made some sense in the Pressmeet.

In the ecosystem, Producer is at the top of the Pyramid and Exhibitor is at the bottom. Producer can sustain a crisis somehow but Exhibitor can not.

In the Pressmeet, it was mentioned that 1,372 theatres were shutdown in the last ten years and 100 have gone in Nizam ever since the release of RRR. This is alarming situation and most theaters will be gone if the issue is not addressed immediately.

It is a fact that Producers are beelining to the OTT offices in Mumbai. They are announcing a Project only if they get the Pre-Approval.

If Single Screen theaters are gone, the producers next will have to beeline to the offices of PVRINOX next.

Today, they are asking for 55-45 Revenue Sharing and tomorrow, the Multiplexes will demand even more in their monopoly.

Producers unknowingly walked into the trap of the OTT during COVID. They should at least stop the next bloodbath.

If the Exhibitors are demanding too much, both sides should sit and arrive at reasonable percentage terms.

Producers making films like Peddi can bargain for even better percentage citing their costs. But if they do not save the single screens, very soon the end will be near for the industry.

The Exhibitors also committed to upgrade their theaters and amenities in one year after Percentage System is implemented. If they did not get better, probably, grading system can be introduced and the bad ones can be penalized.

The announcement of no ticket prices hike is also positive. Running after hikes, the industry successfully killed the run. Audience are clearly in a fatigue. It is time to bring a correction from top to bottom.

This should also lead to correcting the remunerations, costs, and bringing discipline into system.