If you were thinking of watching a movie in a cinema hall this Friday in Bengaluru or elsewhere in Karnataka, you have to wait till Saturday, as it is shutters down across theatres in the state.
As a mark of solidarity with other state association of theatre owners, Karnataka is observing a one-day token strike on the issue of friction between producers and Digital Service Providers regarding Virtual Print Fee.
A spokesperson from Karnataka Film Chamber told TNM, “All theatres in Karnataka including multiplexes are closed for screenings today.”
According to Senthil Kumar of QUBE Digital (one of the more prominent DSPs), this is “just a token strike” as the issue has been resolved between the Kannada industry and the DSPs.
Speaking to TNM, he said, “This was a strike which was earlier planned before we reached an agreement with all the producer associations across states. For some reason they could not carry out their strike on March 1 like other states.”
“I am confident that the agreement which we had with Telugu film association will also be agreeable to Kannada producers,” he added.
The Kannada film industry like the Malayalam industry had agreed to observe one-day strike after major differences broke out between producers and DSPs. Tamil and Telugu associations had stopped screenings of films since March 1.
As earlier reported, producers had complained that DSPs like QUBE and UFO have been charging exorbitant fees which resulted in producers losing their money. Countering the producers’ stand, digital companies claimed that it was the unfair high pay package for leading actors and technicians as a major cause of the problem.
Speaking to TNM last week, Sa Ra Govindu, president of Karnataka Film Chamber had said, "Kannada film industry has not yet finalised but as per initial plan, we will strike only on March 1. The final decision will be taken tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. But we are a smaller film industry and there are issues. It's a minimum market industry and there are schedules [to stick to]."