Tollywood heaves a sigh of relief as AP govt revises ticket prices upwards

Tollywood (the Telugu film indusry) has heaved a sigh of relief as the Andhra Pradesh government had put an end to months of uncertainty around ticket prices. After locking horns with the film industry, which involved verbal duels, the State government issued an order on Monday night, to increase the ticket prices.

It all began when the State government decided to drastically reduce the ticket prices in April last. The prices were cut to as low as ₹5, triggering a war of words between the government and film industry representatives. It also capped the number of shows to four and increase of prices in the first few days of the release.

Interestingly, the April order came a day before the release of Pawan Kalyan’s film Vakeel Saab. A section of the film industry and fans of Pawan Kalyan have alleged that the government’s previous order was solely aimed at targeting the actor.

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Pandemic impact and high production cost

While the government argued that the decision was taken to make it affordable for common man, the film industry contended that low ticket prices were not viable as the cost of production had gone up significantly.

The film industry, which suffered heavily due to the frequent disruptions of film shootings and closure of theatres in the last two years of pandemic, said that the government decision would prove to be a death knell and asked the government to revise the prices, factoring in the cost of production.

Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan, who commands a huge fan following, openly criticised the government’s decision and opposed any moves by the industry to ‘beg’ for price increase.

Interestingly, his elder brother and top actor Chiranjeevi had opened a channel for dialogue with the Andhra Pradesh government. After a one-on-one meeting with Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, he led a delegation that comprised top-league actors Prabhas, Mahesh Babu and film director Rajamouli last month to settle the issue.

Emerging out of the meeting, the delegation said they got an assurance from the Chief Minister and announced that a government order with revised ticket prices would be out soon.

Pawan Kalyan’s film

Incidentally, the government’s order came about two weeks after the release of Pawan Kalyan’s Bheemla Nayak (a remake of the Malayalam film Ayyappanum Koshiyam) suffered heavily in collections in Andhra Pradesh due to the poor ticket pricing.

“Now that the releases of Prabhas, Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu and Jr NTR and Ramcharan are scheduled in the next few weeks, the government has revised the prices upwards,” a Pawan Kalyan’s fan tweeted.

Responding to the revised ticket prices, Chiranjeevi has thanked the government for resolving the issue in favour of the film industry.

The revised order

The government has revised the minimum price to ₹20, ₹30, and ₹40 in villages and towns; municipalities, and corporations, respectively, while the maximum price are at ₹100, ₹125 and ₹150, respectively.

It, however, put a rider that the increased prices would apply to the films with at least 20 per cent of the shooting held in the State.

For the films made with a budget of ₹100 crore (excluding remunerations), it allowed the exhibitors to further increase the prices for 10 days after the release. It also allowed the exhibitors to increase the number of shows to five from four.