At last, the Andhra Pradesh government has finalised the enhanced cinema ticket rates in the state after a lot of exercise and brainstorming.
Sources in the government said chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy signed the file on enhanced cinema ticket rates on Monday afternoon, after the conclusion of the Governor’s speech in the state assembly.
In all probability, a government order (GO) to this effect is likely to be issued by Monday evening or Tuesday, providing the much-needed relief to the producers, exhibitors and distributors; and of course, actors.
Apparently, the timing of the issuance of the GO coincides with the release of ‘Radhe Shyam,” the multilingual pan-India film starring Prabhas, the Baahubali star. Needless to say, the film makers are looking to rake in moolah with the enhanced ticket rates in theatres.
It was on February 10 that a delegation of Telugu cinema industry led by megastar Chiranjeevi held a meeting with the chief minister.Soon after the meeting, Chiranjeevi and others told the reporters in a jubilant mood that the cinema tickets’ issue has been resolved.
He declared that the government would issue orders very soon. Some of them said they would expect the GOs to be issued within a week. But there had been no further move from the state government on the cinema tickets issue since then.
State cinematography minister Perni Nani declared that the GOs would have issued by third week, but there was a delay in the same due to sudden death of industries minister Mekapati Gautam Reddy. “In all probability, it will be issued around February 24,” he said.
But even that deadline has also expired and there were no signs of issuing the GO. This led to the criticism that the government was deliberately delaying the orders only to deny the advantage to Bheemla Nayak, starring power star Pawan Kalyan, who is a known critic of chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy. The film was released on February 25.
There was also a talk that the AP government will not issue the GOs unless Bheemla Nayak completely taken off the theatres after a few days.
Now that Bheemla Nayak is more or less fading out of the screens, the Jagan government has cleared the GO!