Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu, Prabhas & other Tollywood bigwigs meet AP CM
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy assured a delegation of Tollywood bigwigs including Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu, Prabhas, S.S. Rajamouli, Ali, R. Narayanamurthy and others that he planned to set up a committee to draft a policy that would benefit both big and small films in the state. He said it would also address the contentious issue of ticket pricing. Addressing the delegation, which called on him on Thursday, the chief minister said the state government was trying to draft a ticket pricing policy that would benefit all kinds of cinemas and added that certain big-budget films should be treated separately because they use high-end technology and other innovations.
For such films with a budget of more than Rs 100 crore, excluding the remuneration of the hero, heroine and director, there needs to be a policy for a special price to be notified for one week, the chief minister said.
Dwelling on the issue of ticket pricing, he said the government proposed to bring the same rates for every film so that both the government and the producers benefit from the arrangement. The state government, he noted, intended to introduce reasonable rates so that the film industry can thrive without burdening the audience.
Responding to the delegation's plea that five shows a day be permitted, the chief minister said that a movie will be a super hit if it does well on its first weekend -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday. With five shows, he added, the industry will definitely benefit.
The chief minister stressed the need to support small-budget films. He advised the delegation to work on releasing films on festival days in such a manner as to encourage the screening of small-budget films as well, for "they are also part of the industry".
He urged the delegation to take steps to move the film industry to Visakhapatnam from Hyderabad, now in Telangana. He said the state government would provide all the necessary support and allocate land to studios as well. He said Andhra Pradesh, compared with Telangana, contributes 60 per cent of the revenues of the Telugu film industry.
The chief minister also emphasised the importance of promoting film shoots in Andhra Pradesh. The delegation agreed to shoot 20 per cent of all Telugu films in the state.
Film personalities Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu, Prabhas, Rajamouli, Ali, Narayanamurthy, Posani Krishnamurali, Koratala Siva, Niranjan Reddy and Mahi Raghava were present at the meeting, which was attended by senior state government officials.
Later addressing a press conference, Mega Star Chiranjeevi said he was very happy with the outcome of the discussions with the chief minister. He was confident that the ticket prices issue would be resolved by the end of this month, as the government was committed to give a supporting hand to the industry, especially to small-budget films.
