Everybody’s common expectation is to witness Vijay’s Mersal magic on screen for this Diwali 2017. However, issues related to the censor certificate of the film and also the ticket prices in theatres of TN have reportedly not yet been completely solved.
Meanwhile as certain theatres have opened bookings for Vijay’s Mersal hoping for the issue to be solved at the earliest and also to encash the early buzz of Mersal, certain theatres have decided to wait for the issue to be officially solved and go ahead with bookings.
On these lines, GK Cinemas’ Ruban Mathivanan has given his word on Mersal bookings at GK cinemas. Ruban has Tweeted, “Agreement signed for #Mersal, bookings to open by Monday. தளபதியின் திருவிழா ஆரம்பம் #MersalAtGKcinemas.”
*Twitter post is not spell checked
Earlier in the day, we had reported the State Government of Tamil Nadu would levy 10% to 20% Entertainment tax on GST with effect from 27th September. For obvious reasons, this news would not go well with the exhibitors.
The last time when Entertainment tax was levied, the theatre owners went on a 4-day long strike. Will we experience a similar situation again? We are just 18 days away from the release of one of the biggest films of the year, Mersal. Will this tax issue affect Mersal in any way?
We got in touch with Ruban Mathivanan, Managing director of GK Cinemas to know more about this, "This problem doesn't start or end with Mersal; it is a very tricky situation for all theatre owners. Not just Mersal, even the films that are being screened right now have been acquired based on old tax calculations. So this new taxation policy will be a huge hit for theatres owners. It could even destroy the industry".