Director Bharathiraja who inaugurated Tamil Film Active Producers Association (TFAPA) office in Chennai on September 14, spoke to reporters on the issues faced by producers in the industry. “No one can dictate terms on whom I can sell my product to. Product is mine and it is my right to sell. Those who want to buy will come forward. We know how to sell it,” he said.
Bharathiraja was answering questions relating to producers’ requests to theatre owners. “Now, there are no distributors to play middlemen. We are directly selling our films to theatre owners. Therefore a big portion of the benefit goes to theatre owners. We have made our requests and we are ready to discuss,” he added.
TFAPA had put forward a list of six main requests on the table for theatre owners to discuss. Earlier, in response to the producers’ requests, the Theatre Owners' Association had categorically stated that they will not accept their terms. Tirupur Subramaniam, the president of the Association, had said that theatre owners would be pushed to look at other options, like converting their theatres into wedding halls or screening IPL cricket matches instead.
To this, Bharathiraja on Monday said that the TFAPA remained resolute on its earlier demands. “They can turn it (theatres) into kalyana mandapam, conduct conference… Building is theirs. But our product is their selling point. Audience come in for our product,” he said.
“If they agree to our terms we will not go towards OTT. Technology will keep bringing new avenues. All of it is related to business,” he added.
The inauguration was attended by producers such as CV Kumar, SR Prabhu and Dhananjayan among others.
On the newly formed association, Bharathiraja said, “We want to discuss the problems faced by producers in today’s world. All big producers have joined this association. The association will be addressing problems relating to films that have stalled due to COVID-19 lockdown, salaries that were discussed prior to the lockdown etc. Our foremost request to actors and technicians is to complete the existing projects and only then sign new films.”