In a shocking development, an announcement has come in from the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce that the theatres across the two Telugu-speaking states – Andhra and Telangana – would be shut down from March onwards in protest against the exorbitant charges imposed by the digital service providers.
Speaking about this matter, the General Secretary of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce, Muthyala Ramdoss pointed out that at present the distributors are shelling out up to Rs 20,000 per week for a film for this purpose and the amount is collected from the exhibitor or DSPs. The proposed strike is in protest against this, we hear.
With the TFCC announcing the strike, the industry bigwigs are sure to do all within their power to thwart it by amicable settlement. This is the only plausible way out as several high budget and big star value films are gearing up for the summer release when the strike is set to begin.
More importantly, this time it would not just be theatre shut down but all production related work will also come to a standstill.
Some of the movies that are likely to hit the silver screens are Mahesh Babu’s Bharath Ane Nenu, Ram Charan’s Rangasthalam, Allu Arjun’s Naa Peru Surya Naa Illu India, Rajinikanth’s 2.0, Naga Chaitanya’s Savyasachi etc.
It may be mentioned here that the last time the Telugu film industry went on a strike was way back in 2010 when the dialogues between the Telugu Film Producers Council and the Film Employees Federation failed regarding the wage issue.
With the strike set to happen three months away from now, there is a strong possibility of this being averted with the intervention some industry biggies as some big films are slated for release this summer.