WILL THE HIKE IN TICKET RATES AFFECT THE DEMAND IN TAMIL CINEMA? THEATER OWNERS DAZED.

The increase in ticket rates came as a shock to ardent film-goers in Tamil Nadu as the government had announced a new set of standards. The 10% entertainment tax was included in the base price, and there is also GST, which will be added to the ticket rates. The sudden increase has affected the viewers as well as the theater owners in various ways.

We contacted a few theater owners to find out what they feel about this. The reactions from theater owners themselves varied to a good extent. Single or double screen theater owners said that they are not planning to hike the ticket rates quoting low demand as the reason. On the other hand, multiplex owners have announced that they will be following the government order as they feel that there was one point where theaters in Chennai had priced their tickets at 200, and they still had the crowd coming. They also thought (and think) that the audience would get used to the high rates very soon and it wouldn't make a difference.

One thing is clear: the theater owners are all not in the same boat for now. Some feel that this decision will be beneficial to them, while the rest think that it would be a shortcoming. The audience is currently not happy with these choices, but we need to wait to know better.