Director Bharathiraja and a few producers representing the Tamil Film Producers’ Council met digital cinema projection company Qube Cinemas recently to request certain benefits for producers and members of the Council.
The producers put forward a series of demands, from which Qube has agreed to a few. The company has said that preview shows and shows screened for the censors will be free of cost. One minute trailers of their films screened in threatres will also not be charged. Permission to shift ‘life payments’ from one theatre to another within Tamil Nadu has been granted.
Bharathiraja, who was recently also appointed the president of the Directors’ Association, along with TG Thyagarajan, K Rajan, T Siva, Sivasakthi Pandian, JSK Sathish – members of the ad-hoc committee in TFPC, had talks with five executives of Qube Cinemas on June 22.
Speaking to Silverscreen, T Siva said their demands were heard, and as of June 22 producers will not have to pay Rs 2,000 for preview shows and Rs 2,500 for censor shows. The producers will also be reducing the run time of trailers to one minute, which will be screened in theatres free of cost. “In addition to this, Qube has allowed us to shift life payments, which means that the ‘life’ amount of Rs 25,000 per film which we used to pay to Qube to allow theatres to have a run time of however long we wish, can be shifted from one theatre to another within TN. We use this facility when a film has a decent run in one theatre and another week of screenings are a demand in a different theatre. We will no longer need to pay extra Rs 9,000.
During the TFPC strikes last year, council president Vishal and other office-bearers were negligent in removing the rule. So we approached Qube and they agreed to bring back the facility.”
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Talks with Qube are on for four more demands. Qube currently handles digital services in about 60% of the theatres in Tamil Nadu, and T Siva says that since they have a monopoly, other companies handling digital rights and services will implement the rules soon. “We are also planning to meet TV channels regarding satellite rights, and will continue working in favour of the producers until the next TFPC elections are announced and TFPC members take charge.”
The council is currently managed by special officer N Sekhar who was appointed by the Tamil Nadu Government following allegations of mismanagement by the current office bearers. Announcements regarding TFPC elections can also be expected in a few months’ time.