Exclusive: Jagan grants unexpected bonanza for Tollywood!

The Telugu film industry has got unexpected bonanza from YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

A delegation of Tollywood biggies, led by megastar Chiranjeevi, who met the chief minister at his Tadepalli residence on Thursday afternoon, was in a pleasant surprise when he granted them more than what they were expecting him.

According to highly placed sources, the chief minister has agreed to enhance the cinema ticket prices in theatres across the state, as per the suggestion given by the delegation and fixed by the official committee constituted to look into their representation.

But the biggest boon granted by Jagan to the Tollywood was that makers of the big ticket films, whose production cost is more than Rs 100 crore (apart from remuneration to the actors), would be allowed to charge additional amount from the audiences, over and above the cinema ticket prices.

Though he did not specifically mention how much money they could charge extra on the ticket price for such films, sources said it would be not less than Rs 100 per ticket.

Secondly, the chief minister also agreed to categorise theatres for fixing of ticket prices, based on the luxuries and the other facilities they provide to the audiences, instead of the area in which they are located. 

So, ticket prices are decided based on whether the theatre is V Epic or Inox or Imax or Multiplex or an air-conditioned or non-air conditioned single screen theatre. If the theatre is a very high-end theatre, they can charge more prices than what the normally listed price.

Sources said these two major boons would give huge benefit to the big ticket films like RRR, Radheshyam, Acharya, Sarkar Vari Pata etc, as they could recover their money within no time and also make huge profits. 

All these days, they were fearing that they might have to sell their films to the buyers at a huge rebate. There were reports that “RRR” itself was prepared to lose not less than Rs 60 crore through underselling to the buyers, because of the crisis in the theatres in Andhra Pradesh.

The chief minister has also agreed to the request of the film industry delegation to allow theatres to screen five shows a day for all kinds of films, big or small.

Sources said Jagan has requested the Telugu film industry to come out with a blue print as to how to shift the film industry to Visakhapatnam and develop it as an entertainment hub in the coming years.