Exorbitant prices for special shows of big budget movies might become a thing of the past soon as the state government is planning to fix ticket rates for such shows as well. At present, the government of Tamil Nadu regulates the ticket prices of normal shows in theatres across the state.

As per reports, Kadambur Raju, the state Information and Broadcasting Minister said that the government of Tamil Nadu was considering fixing ticket prices for special shows of big budget movies which release during festivals.

Speaking to reporters, Kadambur Raju said, “Theatre owners requested the government to fix the rates for special shows to eliminate the possibility of tickets being sold exorbitantly. Revenue to the government will also go up.” He also added that this decision would probably reduce the ticket prices during festival days, when the norm in Tamil Nadu is to sell tickets at exorbitant rates.

Adding that the government might also look into the feasibility of building infrastructure to facilitate online ticket sales, the minister said that this was being mulled since producers had flagged online platforms charging internet or convenience fee for every ticket being sold on their platforms.

Meanwhile, reacting to the minister’s comment, renowned film distributor Tiruppur Subramanian told The Hindu that he welcomes the decision and that anyway special shows are being given only for select actors and high prices are being charged only for one show of those films.

In 2017, the government of Tamil Nadu hiked the base price of tickets in multiplexes with more than three screens to Rs 150. The minimum price of tickets sold in theatres across the state was also hiked to Rs 15. It was Rs 10 earlier. Other multiplexes with less than three theatres were allowed to charge anywhere between Rs 106.30 and Rs 118.80. These prices were excluding GST.