“Low-priced tickets can help filmmakers too”

Exhibitor, distributor and producer Manoj Desai has been in the film industry for 31 years. The executive director of the Gaiety-Galaxy multiplex as well as Mumbai’s famous Maratha Mandir theatres, he’s a lone crusader for low rates of cinema tickets. He talks to V. Gangadhar about the role and problems of single theatres in this age of multiplexes.

Excerpts from the interview:

I have nothing against multiplexes but along with them, single theatres should be allowed to survive and grow. Multiplexes offer facilities for the affluent classes but I am not in favour of the high admission rates they charge. A family of poor or middle-class film-goers cannot shell out Rs 150 plus per ticket. We have to work out some kind of a compromise.

The logic is simple. Ultimately, low rates can help not only filmgoers but also filmmakers. In my theatres, I had refused to hike the rates, keeping the balcony charges at Rs 55 and for the stalls at Rs 35. But recently, due to government directives and protests from other multiplexes, I had to hike the rates of a few balcony seats to Rs 100 and classify them as ‘dress circle’. Now the government has allowed me to go back to my old rates. Among the recent releases, Krishna Cottage bombed at all the multiplexes but it did good business in my theatres because people did not mind spending Rs 35 - 50 on a third-rate movie.

This is an illusion. In multiplexes, which charge high admission rates, there are no audiences from the fourth day onwards. But in Maratha Mandir, Yash Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge had been running almost houseful for more than nine years because of low admission rates.

High rates have come to be regarded as a sort of status symbol. Because of my stand on the issue, I am not popular with some producers and exhibitors who’ve refused me their films. `A0For example, for Kaante, my maximum rate of Rs 100 was less than the minimum rate in other multiplexes.

From the 212-odd single theatres in Mumbai some 10 years ago, the number has now come down to around 140. They are heavily taxed. But the seven multiplexes in the city need not pay any entertainment tax for the first three years and only 25 per cent for the next five. The entertainment tax for the single theatres had recently been reduced from 55 per cent to 45 per cent. The growth of multiplexes appears to be a prestige issue for the government. With smaller cities coming up with multiplexes, there is a feeling that Mumbai should not lag behind.

How effective was the ET reduction for the single theatres?

The relief came after the theatre owners went on strike twice. The government insisted that the benefits be passed on to the customers but not many theatres obliged. Despite the reduction, Maharahstra has the highest tax rate in the country, other states charge around 25 to 35 per cent entertainment tax.

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